• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.37-47
• /
• 2007

Targeting dental hygienists who work in clinical division and public dental health division, this study was to investigate and analyze their working environment by work division, so that it could make basic material available in the interest of efficiently employing technical manpower specializing in public health and their better work environment in the future. 1. In terms of the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents, it was found that employees in public health were married in higher percentage and had higher age with longer career than those in clinical division, and it was noted that the former group had higher percentage in longer academic career than the latter group. 2. In terms of working days and hours, it was found that dental hygienists employed in public health worked 5 days a week(95.8%), while those in clinical division worked 6 days a week(70.3%). That is, the latter group worked longer days a week than the former group. 3. In terms of annual regular holidays, it was found that dental hygienists in public health division mostly took 11 to 20 days off a year, while those in clinical division mostly took 1 to 3 days off a year. That is, the former group is significant different in annual holidays from the latter group. 4. In terms of pay and allowances, it was found that most of public health group(89.4%) got monthly pay, while most of clinical group(65.4%) got the pay in annual salary. 5. In terms of reorientation experiences, it was found that 63.5% of total respondents didn't have any opportunity of domestic and overseas reorientation. And in terms of financial sponsorship for reorientation, it was noted that 54.0% of total respondents were financially supported for their reorientation by the institution they work for. 6. In terms of in-house welfare environment for married employees, it was found that 85.5% respondents ever faced no discrimination in job opportunities. In terms of the availability of maternity leave, it was noted that 69.2% respondents used the maternity leave, and 74.8% respondents used the maternity leave during 3 months. 7. In terms of quitting job, it was found that 46.8% respondents had ever left their job(public health group: 53.8%, clinical group: 45.8%), while the remaining 53.2% respondents(public health group: 46.2%, clinical group: 54.2%) had never left their job. Here, it is found that the employees in public health accounted for somewhat higher percentage in quitting job than those in clinical division. In terms of the number of leaving job, it was noted that most(50.8%) respondents left their job once, and there were similar distributions in quitting job between these both groups. In terms of the reason for quitting job, it was found that 29.2% respondents left their job due to desire for better pay(allowance) and working conditions.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.83-89
• /
• 2015

To investigate the necessity of periodontal treatments, and the association of the health lifestyle with periodontal treatments, the data of 11,488 adults targeted in the 5th (2010, 2012) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used in this study. Chi-squared test was conducted to compare the subjects' general features with the health lifestyle of the patients who needed periodontal treatments. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to confirm the variables that could affect the necessity of periodontal treatments. As a result of verifying the necessity of periodontal treatments according to the general features and health lifestyle, the necessity decreased with the higher income level and education level, and in the cases of nonsmokers, frequent toothbrushing, and using oral hygiene products. When the subjects who did not had oral examinations, their necessity for periodontal treatments significantly increased (p<0.01). The variables that affected the necessity of periodontal treatments included residence, gender, education level, obesity, and oral examinations (p<0.01). Therefore, health lifestyle was thought an important variable that had affected the oral health status. Professional dental hygienists must provide people with action programs of health lifestyle to promote the national oral health status.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.17 no.10
• /
• pp.102-109
• /
• 2017

This study is to seek a method to alleviate fear of dental treatment among college students. Research objects are students in public health department and those in other departments on. B University located in area A from April 5, 2017 to April 12, 2017. They were provided with education, and given two surveys before and after the education. The survey data were analyzed with the SPSS 19.0 program using T-test. The findings of the analysis are as follows. After the education, fear of dental treatment was reduced more among students in the public Health Department than among those in other departments. After education on dental treatment, there were greater changes in oral health among students in non-public health departments than those in the Public Health Department. There were grater changes in oral health among students in the Public Health Department than those in other departments. It is necessary to cultivate dental technicians through efficient and professional education, and those dental technicians should serve to reduce fear of dental care among the people, and change consciousness on such treatments. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop efficient education programs to reduce fear and increase the consciousness of dental health among people, and make people not afraid of coming to dental clinic.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.233-238
• /
• 2005

The study was intended to investigate elementary schoolers' oral health status according to whether the school have and manage an school oral health clinic or not in order to provide useful information for continuously developing the school oral health clinic 1,163 children in Hwasan elementary school in Hwasung city and 485 children in S elementary school in the same locality were selected as the experimental group and the control group, respectively, and orally examined from May 1st to 30th, 2004. The findings from the oral examination were as follows. 1. DMF rate was higher in the higher grades in both the groups. The rate was lower in the experimental group with 45.1% of the children than in the control group with 65.3% of the children. 2. DMFT rate also were higher as the grades were higher in both the groups. The ratio was lower in the experimental group with 30.4% of the children than in the control group with 44.6% of the children. 3. DMFT index was 1.0 in number in the experimental group and 1.6 in the control group. Index increase from the 1st grade to the sixth grade was also more positive in the experimental group. 4. DT rate was a little higher in the experimental group in the first graders, but comparatively decreased to the grades while increased in the control group. In the sixth graders, the rate was 42.4% in the experimental group and 87.7% in the control group, the former was less than the latter by about 50% point. 5. FT rate was a little higher in the control group for the first graders but increased in the experimental group to the grades. The rate in the sixth graders was higher by more than double in the experimental group. Based on the above findings, the region of the study had better oral health statistics than in other regions. The operation of school oral health clinics that provide dental health care to children at the right time seems to contribute to enhancing their dental health status by preventing against dental diseases and changing their relevant knowledge, attitude and behaviors. In the future, more school oral health clinics should gradually be prepared to push ahead with a sustained, extensive dental health project geared toward school-aged children. To make it happen, dental hygienists who are professional medical personnels should be taken advantage of, and in order to beef up the efficiency of preventive measures and oral health education, the best dental health care services should be offered by harnessing dental hygienists and dentists who work at public dental clinics run by local governments.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.285-299
• /
• 2022

The aim of this study is to investigate the awareness and perception of pediatric dentists regarding dental health insurance (DHI) system in Korea. Online surveys were sent to the members of the Korean Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (KAPD), and the responses were collected. The survey, consisting of 41 questions, was subdivided into 'general background of the respondents', 'the awareness on national health insurance (NHI) and DHI', 'the awareness on DHI pertaining to pediatric dentistry', 'issues that need improvement on DHI pertaining to pediatric dentistry', 'DHI claims', and 'the roles of KAPD in DHI'. In total, 302 responded, with a response rate of 28.9%. Excluding 2 questionnaires with insufficient answers, a total of 300 survey results were analyzed. According to the analysis, pediatric dentists thought that the coverage of DHI was not as sufficient compared to that of NHI, but were expecting its scope to broaden in the future. The satisfaction rate was higher in pit and fissure sealant and composite resin filling than in caries-detecting quantitative light-induced fluorescence. Pediatric dentists considered permanent tooth composite resin filling (65.7%) needed an increase in insurance copayment, while topical fluoride application (74.7%) to require insurance coverage. DHI claims were generally handled by dental hygienists and/or nursing assistants. Approximately half of the respondents answered that they have had experiences on appealing for insurance denials. Lastly, pediatric dentists generally had a positive attitude towards providing information for the DHI. This study is expected to be used as a sound dataset for the DHI policy development concerning pediatric dentistry.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.1025-1036
• /
• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to identify the status and opinions of professional oral health care performance in oral cancer patients. Methods: Seven National University Dental Hospitals and the National Cancer Center in Korea surveyed the medical personnel in charge of oral health care for oral cancer patients. The questionnaire consisted of 16 questions, including the status of expert oral health care education and performance for oral cancer patients, etc. A total of 47 questionnaires were retrieved, and the collected data were used in PASW Statistics 23.0 to perform frequency analysis, cross-analysis, and kruskal Wallis tests. Results: A survey of oral health care education found that 29.8% of the medical personnel had received education. The most performed of professional oral health care was found that applying fluoride by dental hygienist, treating stomatitis by dentist, and wiping mouths with sponge by nurse. The assessment of self-performance has shown that applying fluoride by dental hygienists has a statistically significant difference. Only 37.8% of oral health care education for patients was conducted. Most recognized that oral health care in oral cancer patients was important, but it is difficult to provide care due to lack of performance personnel and time, opportunities for performance personnel to be educated. The improvement was found to require an increase in the number of performance personnel, placement of professionals, and practical training to enhance performance capabilities. Conclusions: For oral health care of oral cancer patients, continuous education for medical personnel, establishment of oral health care manual and medical system, research on oral health care of oral cancer patients and public relations campaign will have to be activated. Development of expert care manual analysis and evaluation tools for oral health care in oral cancer patients in the future and development of standardized curriculum will be necessary.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• v.6 no.6
• /
• pp.9-15
• /
• 2015

The study aims to examine the knowledge and awareness of care workers on oral health knowledge at the geriatric care facilities in order to improve and develop oral health services. For the research method, the study carried out a questionnaire survey to 163 care workers working at the geriatric care facilities (10) in D Metropolitan City from May 1~31, 2015 and then the collected data were statistically analyzed. As a result, the oral health knowledge of care workers was 20.09 points out of total 26 points (77.2%). The highest knowledge was 'proper toothbrushing method' with 93.0% and the lowest one was 'knowledge on the use of oral supplementary goods' with 58.1%. Those with experience of oral health education had higher demand on oral health education (P<0.001), and those with higher experience of oral health education had significantly higher oral health knowledge (P<0.001), demand (P<0.01) and awareness (P<0.05). As for factors influencing care workers' oral health awareness, if they had higher oral health knowledge points (P<0.01), oral health education demand (P<0.01), they had higher oral health awareness level. Accordingly, it is required to provide efficient, sustainable and practical oral health education of care workers considering oral characteristics of the long-term hospitalized patients at the care hospital. And, the role of dental hygienist as the person in charge of oral health education is necessary. Therefore, institutional support from the government is required to assign professional personnel.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.21-27
• /
• 2001

The purpose of this study was to explore some of the right directions for school dental-health education, by examining nursing students' knowledge on and attitude to the two major oral diseases in our country, dental caries and periodontal disease, as they will take charge of dental-health education and care for children in school dental-health center as sole expert health personnels after graduation. As a result of making an analysis of their knowledge and attitude, the following findings were acquired: (1) The students investigated perceived their oral cavity to tend to be healthy(36.8%) or in moderate situation(36.3%), although they had a subjective symptom for hot or cold food. (2) They thought dental caries is attributed to poor dental hygiene care(90.4%). Among them, 94.1% found toothbrushing effective for the prevention of dental caries, but just 40.2% agreed that toothbrush should be straight. (3) Those who considered fluoride effective for dental caries prevention thought the best way to use fluoride is taking fluoride-containing tap water(2.00). The second best way was fluoride mouth rinse(2.40), followed by the topical application of fluoride(2.70), use of fluoride dentifrice, and intake of fluoride(4.30) in the order named. (4) The regular examination and toothbrushing were mentioned as a way to prevent dental caries, but just toothbrushing was put in action for dental health. So their knowledge and actual attitude weren't the same. (5) They brushed their teeth for oral health(94.3%). Toothbrushing was done after breakfast(71.9%) or before bedtime(65.8%). Just 40.3% performed toothbrushing after lunch. That was implemented twice(35.7%) or three times(37.6%) a day. (6) Out of those who pointed out toothbrushing as a way to prevent periodontal diseases(84.7%), the effect of toothbrushing on the prevention of periodontitis wasn't supported by 7.1% of those who completed the course of study for the teaching profession and by 17.0% of the others who didn't. The two groups weren't of the same opinion. The above-mentioned findings suggest that the dental knowledge of the nursing students wasn't good enough to be properly responsible for school children's dental health care. In particular, there was a gap between knowledge and attitude. To improve children's poor dental health and help their oral cavity stay healthy, there is a need to activate school dental-health center, which is now in model operation, and to make the most of dental hygienists, who are educated to be a dental-health specialist, for more successful dental-health care for school children.