• 한국치위생학회지
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.207-219
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• 2019

Objectives: This study investigates the dental hygienist's main duties in clinical dental practice and examine whether dental hygienists can safely perform each duty by referring to the educational contents of dental hygiene departments and national examinations of dental hygienists. Methods: A questionnaire on the main duties of dental hygienists was administered to 477 clinical dental hygienists working at dental clinics and hospitals, general dental hospitals, and university dental hospitals in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon. We divide the dental hygienists' clinical dental hygiene practice and clinical dental assist and analyze the legal scope of practice, university educational contents, and national examination contents. Statistical analysis was performed through frequency analysis, and multi-frequency data were analyzed using Excel 2013. Results: All 48 items (except 2 items of 29 dental hygiene practice and 21 assist practice items) surveyed were covered in the National Examination for Dental Hygienists and included in the Dental Hygiene Education Learning Objective. The multi-frequency clinical dental practice of eight items of clinical dental hygiene practice and two assist practice items were within the legal scope of the dental hygienist's role. Conclusions: Further discussions are needed to redefine the legal scope of the role of the dental hygienist.

• 보건의료산업학회지
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.145-153
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to identify if dental patients discriminate between dental clinic and dental hospital and the related factors for choice of dental facilities. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted from March 21 to April 11, 2011. Among 430 dental patients who visited dental clinic or dental hospital twice or more in Daegu, 410 dental patients were included in analysis. A total of 73.6% of the dental clinic visitors recognized correctly that the visiting facility was dental clinic and 82.3% of dental hospital visitors did correctly. Therefore, it can be said that dental hospital visitors recognize better the type of dental care facilities they visit. When it comes to choosing the dental facility, there were not much differences between the clinic and hospital patients in this study. Human resources, facilities and equipment, service are factors for choosing dental clinic and dental hospital in order. However, modern dental facility and equipment were more important factor for patients to choose dental hospital than clinic. It will be necessary for dental clinic or dental hospital to develop its own specific service to fulfill dental patients' needs through further studies on factors for choosing dental facilities.

• 한국치위생학회지
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• 제18권5호
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• pp.771-783
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• 2018

Objectives: This study aimed to identify methods that help medical consumers to be aware of relevant information regarding changes in dental health insurance policy. Methods: The following results were obtained from a survey regarding awareness and satisfaction with dental health insurance policy among the general public aged 20 years or older in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and other areas from August 1, 2017 to August 23, 2017. Results: The correlation between adults' awareness of and satisfaction with dental health insurance was 0.471, where satisfaction with dental health insurance was enhanced with increasing awareness of dental health insurance (p<0.001). Factors that significantly affected awareness of dental health insurance were marriage (married p<0.05), medical service (dental university hospital, p<0.01), and satisfaction with dental health insurance (p<0.001); these factors explained 29.2% of the variance. Factors that significantly affected satisfaction with dental health insurance were final education (high school graduation, p<0.05), medical service (dental hospital, p<0.05), and awareness of dental health insurance (p<0.001); these factors explained 27.8% of the variance. Conclusions: Importantly, awareness of the government's operation of dental health insurance and the benefits of such dental health insurance were low, suggesting that the government and national health insurance agency should improve the level of transparency in dental health insurance operations and continuously promote dental health insurance benefits to the public.

• 한국치위생학회지
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.531-538
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate third and forth year dental students' perception towards dental hygienists as professionals. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 602 dental college students in Korea after receiving the informed consent. Except incomplete answers, 217 data were analyzed. The questionnaire consisted of three questions of the general perception towards dental hygienists, four questions of the cooperation relationship to the dental hygienists, four questions of oral health education, five questions of preventive dental health care, five questions of dental treatment cooperation, and five questions of dental health care management. The data were analyzed using PASW Statistics 18.0(SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: Most of the dental college students viewed the dental hygienists as professionals. However, they did not exactly know the professional job of dental hygienists within the current national medical services system and they often viewed the dental hygienists as a medical assistant. The dental college students thought that the key role of the dental hygienists is the dental assisting. Only a small fraction of the participants recognized oral health promotion, preventive cares, and hospital management as professional roles of dental hygienists. Conclusions : Dental college students' perception towards dental hygienists as professionals needs to be improved. Understanding the job description of dental hygienists clearly is a crucial part of dental students' learning process and future practice.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• 제44권2호
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• pp.14.1-14.7
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• 2019

Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) is an inherited metabolic disorder caused by a deficiency in enzymes that participate in the degradation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) such as heparin sulfate and dermatan sulfate. Left untreated, patients show progressive mental and physical deterioration due to deposition of GAGs in organs. Death often occurs due to cardiac or respiratory failure before patients reach their early twenties. MPS has several oral and dental manifestations. An enlarged head, short neck, and open mouth associated with a large tongue are major characteristics of MPS patients. Dental complications can be severe, including unerupted dentition, dentigerous cyst-like follicles, malocclusions, condylar defects, and gingival hyperplasia. A 21-year-old female patient with MPS was described in this article, with special emphasis on oral manifestations and dental treatment.

• 대한치과의사협회지
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• 제53권11호
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• pp.870-885
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• 2015

This article discusses accomplishments and historical implications of American missionary dentist W.J. Scheifley and the first Korean dental department, which was established in 1915 in Korea. W.J. Scheifley, with Christian service mind and mission as a dentist, applied to American Protestantic missionary dentist overseas. The dental department in the Severance Union Medical College introduced the scientistic dental education of America, facilitated research on the dental condition of the Korean people, and ran independent dental clinic. W.J. Schiefley criticised the profit-seeking attitude of Japanese dentists and denturist(="IPCHISA", in Korean pronunciation) and emphasized on the significance of Oral Health. He did all kind of dental treatments with advanced equipments like X-ray machine, and managed the collective oral health care for missionaries overseas. He trained medical students and assistants of the dentists with the goal of producing Korean dentists, but he failed due to the Dentist law introduced by Japanese colonial administration that interfered with producing Korean dentists. However, O.R. Avison's proposal of the establishment of dental schools stimulated the establishment of Kyungsung dental school, which provided the basis for the Dental department in the Severance Union Medical College becoming special training institution for Korean Dentists.

• 대한치과마취과학회지
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.172-176
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• 2011

For dental treatment of children with severe dental phobia, sedation or general anesthesia is usually selected for enhancement of cooperation. But in the case of mouth opening limitation due to temporomandibular disorders, general anesthesia administration is a challenge for anesthesiologist. Because airway management failure was concerned, awake fibroscopic intubation is selected first. But, skillful fibroscopic intubation is not easy in case of uncooprative children patients. In this report, we present two cases of pediatric patients with mouth opening limitation. In the first case, the patient was 52 months old and the maximum opening distance was 1.2 cm, and in the second case the patient was 38 months old and the maximum opening distance was 1.5 cm. Both patients showed severe dental phobia. After sevoflurane inhalation without any intravenous drug, we successfully performed intubation using a fibroscope.

• 한국치위생학회지
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.565-575
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• 2017

Objectives: This study aims to investigate patient cooperation for dental treatments by dividing patients into two groups with different treatment categories, i.e. orthodontic patients versus non-orthodontic patients. Methods: On December 2016, the study conducted survey targeting 311 orthodontic or non-orthodontic patients who are 20 years old or older living in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. The study subject were informed with the adequate information of the study and signed consent forms. Except for the questionnaire copies from 23 respondents whose answers were insincere those from 288 respondents, equivalent to 92.6% of the data collected, were used in the present analysis. Results: This review intended to clarify any factors affecting patient cooperation for dental treatments shows that the perception of oral condition, the reliability of dentistry, and the patient preventive cooperation had an effect on patient cooperation for dental treatments. Conclusions: The results summarized above suggest orthodontic patients who are familiar with dental treatments by virtue of their regular visits to dental clinics have higher cooperation for dental treatments compared to non-orthodontic patients, and the higher reliability of dentistry leads to higher patient cooperation for dental treatments.

• 치위생과학회지
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.330-342
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• 2023

Background: As the medical knowledge base grows at an accelerating rate, evidence-based clinical performance becomes increasingly important for providing quality care. Previous studies have highlighted the need to promote job crafting to actualize evidence-based practical skills in the medical field. This study aimed to investigate the degree of evidence-based practice among dental hygienists and assess the impact of job crafting on the evidence-based practical skills of dental hygienists. Methods: Dental hygienists working at dental hospitals and clinics in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province were surveyed between February 28 and April 6, 2023. The sample was comprised of 267 participants. The hypotheses were tested independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analyses using SPSS 29.0. Results: The degree of job crafting by dental hygienists demonstrated significant differences based on educational attainment, workplace size, and workplace type. Evidence-based practical skills exhibited significant variations based on educational attainment and job position. All job crafting subfactors demonstrated positive correlations with evidence-based practical skills. The job crafting subfactors affecting the evidence-based practical skills of dental hygienists were 'increasing structural job resources' and 'increasing challenging job demands,' which together explained 38.7% of the variance in evidence-based practical skills. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that job crafting was positively and significantly correlated with evidence-based practical skills. To strengthen the job crafting ability of dental hygienists, improving environmental conditions and fostering an organizational culture that motivates continued participation in education is necessary. The development and promotion of programs that enable learning of the latest evidence should be actively pursued. Additionally, regular attendance at workshops and participation in organizational evidence-based practice education programs are necessary.

• 치위생과학회지
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.34-43
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• 2020

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.