The Dentists’ View of Dental Hygienist Duties in Korea / 치위생과학회지

Background@#The number and curriculum of dental hygienists in Korea have dramatically increased. Controversies have since resulted from insufficient job descriptions of the work performed by a dental hygienist. A dentist's perception was examined to legally reflect the actual work of dental hygienists. @*Methods@#Four hundred and nineteen dentists were surveyed about the duties of a dental hygienist. Their views on the career and availability of each job were examined. The duties of the dental hygienist include 13 items in dental treatment preparation, 14 items of radiography, 21 items of preventive dentistry, 6 items of periodontal treatment, 12 items of oral medicine, 12 items of conservative dentistry, 8 items of prosthetics, 10 items of orthodontics, 7 items of oral and maxillofacial surgery, 6 items of implantation, 6 items of impression taking and model fabrication, 5 items of anesthesia and injection, 11 items of management and administrative, and 3 items of self-development. @*Results@#Most of the duties were doable by a dental hygienist. Many dentists reported that managing implants, oral hygiene of special patients, some duties in oral medicine, teeth brightening, making temporary crowns, making individual trays, selecting shades, ligaturing, and precision impressions need ≥3 years of experience. Duties perceived by dentists not to be performed by dental hygienists were reading radiographs (55.4%), suture and stitch out (48.0%), intramuscular injection (36.0%), root planning (27.2%), cementation and removal of prostheses (23.2%), and examining pulp vitality (22.0%). @*Conclusion@#Current laws are to be revised to include, the care provided by dental hygienists and under a physician’s supervision. Flexibility is also needed to cope with rapidly changing dental technology.

The Association between Temporomandibular Joint Disorders and Lumbar Diseases in Adults / 치위생과학회지

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between the symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorders and lumbar diseases in adults when the prevalence rate of osteoarthritis is increasing and to help develop health policies that can improve oral health and health in general. The study used representative data from the 5th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey phase 3 (2012). In total, we analyzed the data of 3,017 individuals aged over 50 years who participated in the health-related survey and underwent radiography of the lumbar joints. PASW statistics ver. 18.0 was used for analysis. This study revealed the following results: 16.1% experienced at least one symptom of temporomandibular joint disorders within the recent single year, 20.6% experienced lower back pain in the recent three months, and 30.6% had lumbar osteoarthritis revealed using radiography of the lumbar joints. Symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorders, lower back pain, and lumbar osteoarthritis were correlated with each other; the respondents who experienced symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorders had 1.70 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.30∼2.22) higher prevalence of lower back pain and 1.20 times (95% CI, 0.86∼1.68) higher prevalence of lumbar osteoarthritis than in those with no such difficulties. The results of this study confirmed that the symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorders affected lumbar diseases in adulthood. Therefore, adequate treatment and prevention of the symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorders in adults is expected to make crucial contributions to decreases in the prevalence rate of lumbar diseases and an improvement in the quality of life.

Study of Clinical Practice Standardization in Dental Hygiene / 치위생과학회지

There are 82 dental hygiene departments and clinical training institutes across the country with a very wide range of clinical practice content and evaluation methods, making standardization difficult. Therefore, there is a need to establish a standard protocol outlining clinical practice content and evaluation methods for systematic and efficient operation of clinical practice. Thus, this study attempted to propose such a protocol for standardization of dental hygiene clinical practice in dental clinics and hospitals to examine the contents of clinical practice by reviewing relevant literature, and relating it to professional practice within the dental hygienic curriculum to facilitate enhancement of expertise. Clinical practice content was extracted from 74 cases, and was consisted of classifying mandatory and optional clinical practice, training time, and activity methods for each component. To standardize effective clinical practice, it is necessary to organize the components acquired in the course of clinical dentistry training in line with their arrangement on each university's curriculum, in order to learn all components step by step. To do this, it is necessary to present a standardized clinical practice protocol and a organic cooperation between educational institutions and clinical training institutions.

Association between Drinking Behaviors and Periodontal Status in Adults by Age Group / 치위생과학회지

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between drinking behaviors and the need for periodontal treatment. The data of 5,995 adults from the 2012 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were categorized into young adulthood (19∼39 years), middle age (40∼64 years), and old age (≥65 years) and analyzed. Chi-square test was performed to determine those who needed periodontal treatment by the respondents' general characteristics and drinking behaviors, and logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine the impact of each drinking behavior on the need for periodontal treatment. The results of this study have confirmed that alcohol intake is a factor adversely affecting periodontal status; therefore, patients should know the fact that excessive alcohol intake and increased frequency of drinking may affect the prevalence rate of periodontal diseases. Moreover, moderate-drinking programs that can reinforce prevention of drinking so that dental hygienists can provide good oral health care should be developed. A systematic oral health promotion program should be introduced for constant prevention with the objective of activating oral health education that focused on middle-aged and young-adult people in pursuit of healthy aging society.

Effects of Anger Expression on Self-Esteem in Dental Hygiene Students / 치위생과학회지

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between anger expression and self-esteem of female college students of dental hygiene. Participants were 598 female students who majored in dental hygiene from randomly selected colleges, located in Daejeon and Chungcheongbuk-do. Data were gathered from May 20 to June 5, 2014, using structured questionnaires. The major findings of the study were as follows: the correlation between anger expression and self-esteem was analyzed, and self-esteem was found to have a weak significant negative correlation with anger expression. On analyzing data to explore which variables affected self-esteem, it was found that self-esteem was influenced by grade, school record, harassment, language–psychological violence, and bullying. The above-mentioned findings suggest that anger expression is related to self-esteem. After graduation from college, dental hygiene students, encounter a variety of interpersonal relationships in their work. Therefore self-esteem programs need to be developed and implemented at an individual, departmental, and collegiate level to help students learn to respect themselves and others, and to provide appropriate care.