• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.379-389
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• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to improve the practice level on dental hygienists'infection prevention by examining the actual condition of dental hygienists'infection control and analyzing factors of having influence upon this. Methods : A questionnaire survey was carried out from July 18, 2011 to August 26 targeting dental hygienists who work at medical institutions where are located in Daegu, Busan and Ulsan Metropolitan Cities and Gyeongsangnam buk-do. After then, the following conclusions were obtained. Results : 1. As a result of surveying practice by item in the practice level of infection prevention, the items with high practice level in the management of infectious diseases were surveyed to be 12 months(89.6%) for health-checkup cycle and to be having experience of vaccination(78.0%) for hepatitis type B. The items with high practice level in the management and practice of washing hands were indicated to be in order of regularly paper towel(87.7%) and hands cleaning after regular medical examination(80.5%). In the item of the practice on wearing and managing individual protection equipment, regularly wearing(93.1%) rubber globes given washing implements was indicated to be high. 2. As a result of analyzing working career, working institution, working region, and practice level of infectious-disease management, the appearance of fulfilling infection control guidelines at medical institution and the experience of education for infection control were indicated to have difference depending on working institution. Regularly health checkup was indicated to have difference depending on respondents' working career and working institution. 3. The whole average in the practice level of infection prevention according to working career, working institution, and working region was indicated to be 2.55 out of 3-point perfection. 4. Wearing latex gloves was indicated to have statistically significant difference depending on working institution(p<0.001) and working region(p<0.001). The exchange of latex gloves every patient and the use of paper apron had statistically significant difference depending on working region(p<0.001). 5. As a result of comparing the frequency of using protection equipment for preventing infection according to the management of infectious diseases, the statistically significant difference was shown depending on the appearance of infection control guidelines at medical institution(p<0.001), the appearance of having experience of health checkup(p<0.01), and the appearance of having experience of vaccination for hepatitis type B(p<0.05). Conclusions : The above-mentioned findings showed that the denture satisfaction of the denture-wearing senior citizens was linked to their subjective oral health awareness. Therefore it will be possible to improve denture-wearing elderly people's quality of life when oral health plans geared toward boosting their denture satisfaction are carried out.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.129-136
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the infection control attitude of dental hygienists and the relationship between their attitude and general characteristics. The subjects in this study were 235 dental hygienists who received local in-service education on April 27, 2008. The survey was conducted by this researcher with questionnaires that included 11 items about general characteristics and 41 about attitude of dental infection. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. The dental hygienists investigated got a mean of 2.96 out of possible three points on hand washing, which was a high score. Those who had never been exposed to the blood of patients scored better than the others who hadn't. As for infection control attitude of protective personal devices, they got 2.01 out of possible three points. Those who were at the age of 26 to 30 and who had ever received infection control education got better scores. 2. Concerning attitude toward surface disinfectant, they got 1.95 out of possible three points. whose age was shorter, whose career was shorter, who were in charge of treatment, who served at general hospitals and who had ever received infection control education got better scores. In regard to attitude to surface disinfection methods, they got 1.83 out of possible three points. Those who had ever received infection control education got better scores. 3. As for equipment disinfection, they got 2.43 out of possible three points. Those who worked at dental hospitals and who had ever received infection control education got better scores. Concerning attitude to disposal of scrapped materials, they got 2.92 out of possible three points, and all the intergroup gaps weren't significant. 4. Overall, the dental hygienists got a mean of 2.08 out of possible three points on dental infection control, and those who worked at dental hospitals and who had ever received infection control education took a better attitude to dental infection control.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.199-209
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to suggest fundamental data for finding problems and ways to improve Korean dental infection control studies through the classification of literature on dental infection control which have been conducted in Korea. The collection of literature was done via seven online database programs only for domestic literature. The date of first search was September 16-17th, 2009, and the final search was completed on December 20th, 2009. (1) From the examination of the frequency of research according to the publishing form by year, it is revealed that after 2006, dental infection control is being performed most vigorously, compared with 1980's when the studied on this area started. (2) According to the classification of research method by research design of original article among the literature, original articles were 45 studies, and the others were 20 studies. It was also found that in 45 studies of original article, there were 37 studies of survey research, and there were 8 studies which include microbiology examination. (3) On the analysis of the subject of each study, glob and mask using rate have gradually increased, and the frequency of pierced with sharp implement or needle have gradually decreased. Through this research, it can be observed roughly how the results depended on subject of each studies change. However, it may be restricted to generalize the results of this research, because there are lack of clear standard and literature evidence to assess the interrelationship between each study. Also, since there are shortage of research and studies in dental infection control, the research to examine the effects should be tried actively after the standards and precaution of dental infection control developed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.313-320
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• 2012

A dental treatment room is always exposed to diverse kinds of pathogenic bacteria, and may be a mediating place of cross-infection given being contaminated the interior of a room through several routes in the form of patient's secretion and aerosol. The main agent of preventing cross-infection is a dental hygienist in the dental treatment and the dental treatment room where are scattered about a risk of cross-infection. A dental hygienist needs to have right recognition on infection control before being active as a clinical expert. This infection-control recognition level is influenced from the clinical practice. Accordingly, to survey recognition of infection control, a self-administered questionnaire research was conducted targeting 314 students who are fixed the clinical practice as regular subject in the junior course out of curriculum for the Department of Dental Hygiene at some of 4-year universities. Data collection was performed from December 9, 2011 to February 22, 2012. Except 11 copies of questionnaire with insincere response among the collected materials, 303 copies were finally analyzed by using SPSS WIN 20.0. The following conclusions were obtained. In the infection disease section, both on and off campus showed 4.89 points from 'the importance of recognizing the infections prevention', 4.65 points from 'recognizing the compulsory preventative injection for hepatitis type B', 4.77 points from 'recognizing the necessity of the preventative injection for hepatitis type B', 4.71 points from 'whether practice the prevention in reality or not', and 4.76 points from 'the educational helps to the prevention'. In other words, the section recorded the highest and meaningful points. It is considered to be needed the development in systematic and diverse infection-control educational programs and the differentiated education depending on school year for dental hygiene students.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.273-280
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• 2022

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the perception of dental infection-control coordinator (DICC) among dental hygienist and determine whether there is a difference in perception depending on the type of work. Methods: Dental hygienists working at the dentistry were conveniently extracted and distributed to 351 patients, and the data of 320 patients were finally analyzed. The chi-square test was conducted to determine the difference in perception of the DICC according to the type of work, and the one-way ANOVA was performed to determine the difference in the perception of DICC tasks. A p-value of <0.05 was statistically significant. Results: General hospitals and university hospitals (100%), dental hospitals (95.8%), and dental clinics (86.6%) showed the highest awareness of the need for DICC. The dental clinics had the lowest level of awareness regarding the duties of the DICC, and dental hospitals and clinics were in different areas with different levels of awareness regarding infection control-related administrative support areas (3.98-4.21 and 3.79-4.12 of 5). Conclusions: Because of a difference in perception regarding the work of DICC according to the type of work, dental organizations should establish the tasks of DICC and develop an education program for a person in charge based on this.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.158-167
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to study the effects of the utilization of ethanol solution in infection control of dental implant hand drivers, a common practice in dental prosthodontic clinics. Materials and Methods: Infection control methods were divided into two groups. One swabbed with 83% ethanol gauze and the other immersed in 83% ethanol solution for 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180 and 300 second intervals after inoculation of the dental implant hand drivers with Staphylococcus aureus. After measuring the number of colony forming units and analyzing the optical density, the effects of infection control in the experimental group were compared with the positive control group without infection control after inoculation with bacteria and the negative control group without inoculation with bacteria after sterilization. Results: The number of colony forming units and optical density analysis showed a statistically significant difference compared to the positive control. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference between the negative control and the group immersed in the 83% ethanol solution for more than 150 seconds. Conclusion: It is recommended to use the ethanol solution as a pre-cleaning process before sterilization, since the intermediate-level disinfection method using ethanol solution alone for the infection control of the dental implant hand driver cannot clinically secure the sterility.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.67-83
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• 2016

Ebola virus disease is a lethal viral hemorrhagic fever that has been boiling in sub-Saharan Africa since 1970s. Last year, The Ebola virus epidemic that has spread not only mainly in West Africa, but also in locals such as USA, Europe and the Antipodes via infected travelers, was brought up. Human-to-human transmission of Ebola virus disease is known only through direct contact with the blood, secretions, tissues or other bodily fluids, including saliva. Although there has not been reported infection cases in the dental healthcare settings, the fact that the infection of the Ebola virus may be made from human secretions such as saliva suggests that there is a high risk of infection for the Ebola virus of dental healthcare workers. Therefore, it is important dental healthcare workers to identify infection-suspected patients through the oral findings for infection prevention. This article will review the oral signs and symptoms of Ebola virus disease and discuss the pathogenesis, treatment and prevention. Furthermore, Infection control guidelines for oral healthcare workers are also proposed.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.571-580
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• 2011

Objectives : This study focused on examine the relevance between behavioral changes of customers and re-use intention on medical institution after experiencing infection control through external stimuli. Methods : This research was based on self-standing survey conducted from August to November 2010, 214 people who randomly selected from five dental clinics located in Busan were analyzed as the final group. Collected data were performed using SPSS 12.0 for Window. Results : 1. 82.8% of those surveyed who experienced external stimulation have changed their behavior on hospital environments and facilities, and 80.5% of them answered the stimuli influenced their re-use intention on medical institution. 2. There were no significant differences between participants by general characteristics on 'The reason why medical team wear sanitary appliances'. In age group 30~39, 85.4% of participants chose the answer so the difference were statistically significant(p<.001). Result by household income showed significant difference in group over $1,000 to $2,000 as 82.7% response(p<.05). 3. 94.4% of participants chose 'Required' for both surgical suits and gloves in research of 'The necessity level of personal sanitary appliances' which medical teams wear for treatment and 79.4% agreed that medical teams need to change their medical gloves whenever treating each patients. 4. The survey revealed that the most important appliance in patient's awareness were surgical gloves and protective goggles has chosen as the least important one. Conclusions : Patients as medical consumer were highly noticed of importance of the infection control in dental clinic and necessity of personal sanitary appliances. The patients who has accessed dental infection control information by external stimuli in advance showed objectival changes of their visit and behavioral changes with bringing medical environments together. This aspects influenced those patient's re-use intention in conclusion.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.231-238
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• 2022

This study aimed to analyze the Influence of workplace spirituality on job stress and infection control performance of dental hygienists in the COVID-19 pandemic situation Questionnaire was conducted for 149 dental hygienists from February to March 2021. COVID-19 knowledge and practice of infection control, job stress. and workplace spirituality. Survey data were analyzed t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation using statistical programs of PASW Statistics ver. 21.0. Workplace spirituality was investigated to increase infection control performance and reduce job stress in a pandemic situation. The group with high infection control knowledge and performance showed low levels of job instability, organizational system, and stress. As for job stress, those with less than 2 years of experience reported relationship conflict, those with 3 to 5 years of experience showed high levels of job instability, organizational system, inadequate compensation, and workplace culture. In a pandemic situation, workplace spirituality was investigated to increase infection control performance and reduce job stress, so a plan to improve the quality of medical care was required for holistic and systematic organizational operation in preparation for the post-coronavirus.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.343-350
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• 2023

Background: Digital panoramic dental X-ray equipment (PDX) is frequently used by patients and dental workers for diagnosis and examination in dental institutions; however, infection control has not been properly implemented. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to systematically review the potential risk of cross-infection in the dental environment by investigating the contamination level of general aerobic bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus, which are important in hospital infections, in PDX areas that people mainly contact. Methods: This survey was conducted from March to May 2023 and covered one general hospital, three dental hospitals, and nine dental clinics equipped with PDX. Bacteria samples were collected from the left-handle, right-handle, forehead support, and head side support as the patient's contact areas, as well as the X-ray exposure switch and left-click mouse button as the dental hygienist's contact areas of the PDX. The collected bacteria were spread on Petrifilm, and colonies formed after 48 hours of culture were counted. Results: General aerobic bacteria and S. aureus were detected in all areas investigated. Significant differences in bacterial counts between different regions of the PDX were observed in both groups (p<0.001). The detection rates of general aerobic bacteria (p<0.001) and S. aureus (p<0.001) were significantly higher in the contact areas of patients than those of dental hygienists. A positive correlation was observed between the forehead and the temple region in terms of general aerobic bacteria and S. aureus detection (r=1) (p<0.01). Conclusion: Taken together, the presence of many bacteria, including S. aureus, detected in PDX indicates that PDX has a potential cross-infection risk. Our results therefore highlight the need for the development of appropriate disinfection protocols for reusable medical devices such as PDX and periodic infection prevention training for hospital-related workers, including dental hygienists.