• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.107-125
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• 2010

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to examine the subjective awareness and expectations of implant patients. Methods : The subjects in this study were 200 implant patients at three different dental clinics in the region of Busan. Results : Concerning awareness of implant, the patients aged between 41 and 50 were best aware of implant with 2.85(p<0.05). By education, those who received college or higher education were best aware of it with 3.53(p<0.001). By income, those whose income was three million won or more were best aware of it with 2.95(p<0.05). As for expectations for implant, the women expected more from it with 2.89(p<0.01). By age, those aged between 41 and 50 had the biggest expectations with 3.63(p<0.001). By education, the patients whose income ranged between 2 and 2.99 million won had the greatest expectations with 2.91(p<0.05). Education and occupation made no significant differences to that. In regard to correlation among their knowledge, awareness and expectations for implant, there was a positive correlation between their knowledge and awareness(0.439), and their awareness had a negative correlation to their expectations(-0.147). Conclusions : The above-mentioned findings suggested that what patients expect from implant should accurately be grasped when counseling is provided, and that accurate information should be provided to them as well. Their cooperation should be requested during implant treatment, and special post-care programs should be prepared to boost their quality of life after receiving implant treatment. Quality medical services should be offered in proportion to the cost of treatment in order to satisfy their expectations.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.85-98
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of the subjective oral health awareness of local residents in the city of Changwon and Haman county in an effort to lay the foundation for the development of customized local oral health education programs. The 2015 community health survey data were used, and the data from 864 residents in Changwon and from 719 dwellers in Haman county were analyzed. The Changwon residents brushed their teeth after lunch more, received more oral checkups over the past year and had more scaling experience. The Haman residents had more experience of not receiving dental treatment. The subjective health awareness, subjective oral health awareness, chewing difficulty and periodontal health of the Haman dwellers were all worse, and all the levels of awareness were lower among the respondents who were older and who were diagnosed with hypertension and/or diabetes. The respondents who made use of dentures and who didn't brush their teeth after lunch had experience of not receiving dental treatment, and all the levels of health-related awareness were lower among the respondents who didn't receive dental checkups nor had scaling experience. To remedy the situation, efforts should be made to prevent and manage chronic diseases, and the establishment of a system that guarantees regular dental checkups and scaling is required. And the kind of environments that everybody can receive dental treatment when they want should be prepared. In order to change negative awareness, necessary measures should be taken to provide oral health education that is not temporary but sustainable and tailored to local characteristics and different life stages.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2020

Background: In Korea, laws for many medical technicians were revised in the Enforcement Decree of the Medical Technicians Act (MTA), which was announced on December 2018, whereas those related to dental hygienists remained unchanged. This study aimed to determine the awareness and opinions of dental hygienists regarding MTA. Methods: Dental hygienist were recruited as participants via convenient sampling in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Chungcheong-do; data from 291 self-reported questionnaire responses were used for the final analysis. We investigated the participants' general characteristics, awareness, and request for the amendment of the MTA. The compliance with the work scope specified in the MTA and level of demand for revision of the MTA were analyzed by independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance. For all statistical analyses, the significance level was set at 0.05. Results: For the 2018 MTA revision, 99 (34.02%) knew that dental treatment assistance and surgery assistance were excluded, whereas 192 (65.98%) did not know. The item "The current medical technician law must be revised" was scored 4.13±0.80 out of 5 points, and significant differences were identified according to the education level, career, and position (p<0.05). The item "It is necessary to institutionalize the expanded work scope beyond the work scope of dental hygienists specified in the MTA" was scored 4.02±1.04 out of 5 points, and significant differences were identified according to age (p<0.05). Conclusion: The participants wanted the MTA to be revised to reflect the real-world work performed by dental hygienists in the dental clinical field. The legal system must ensure the legal protection of the work area of the dental hygienist as an oral health professional, and recognize the legal work scope of the dental hygienist.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.396-407
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• 2023

Background: This study investigated the awareness and utilization of maternity protection and work-family balance support policies among dental hygienists in dental hospitals and clinics. Methods: We surveyed 200 dental hygienists. Twenty-two who did not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded, leaving 178 participants for analysis. The self-administered 48-item questionnaire gathered information on demographics, workplace details, policy awareness, government knowledge, and suggestions for improvement. Results: Awareness of maternity and family support programs significantly differed with age, marital status, number of children, and clinical experience. Dental hygienists in general hospitals and university hospitals reported greater ease of utilizing these policies compared to those in dental clinics. Among the participants, 27.7% took pre- and post-maternity leave, 26.6% took parental leave, 16.9% had reduced working hours during pregnancy, 15.8% had reduced working hours during childhood,and 8.5% during family leave. To promote program uptake, participants suggested mandatory implementation across workplaces (68.4%), expanded support for substitute workers (48.6%), and increased education and promotion of government support (42.4%). Conclusion: While most dental hygienists were aware of the Maternity Protection and Work-Family Balance Assistance Policy, utilizing it proved challenging due to several factors. Organizational policies or practices may not fully implement this policy, while workplace culture could discourage its use. Unfair treatment and the lack of available substitutes further hindered access. To prevent career interruptions for dental hygienists due to pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, and family care, and to maintain career continuity, the dental community and government should establish a multifaceted social support system. This system should prioritize several key areas: strengthening policy promotion, fostering a family-friendly atmosphere, improving management and supervision of policy implementation and developing a robust support system for substitute personnel.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1195-1206
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to analyze relationship between oral health status and subjective oral malodor awareness of public health students. Furthermore, this study aimed to recognize the importance of prevention and treatment of internal and external factors and to contribute to the correct oral health management behavior. Methods: The study subjects were 500 students from 5 health departments of 2 universities located in Jeollanamdo who participated in self-administered survey from September 1 to 15, 2014. For statistical analysis, SPSS 21.0 for Windows was used. Descriptive analysis and a Chi-square test were conducted to investigate the effects of general characteristics, health behavior, oral health behavior, and oral health status on subjective oral malodor awareness. Finally, to investigate the relationship between oral health status and subjective oral malodor awareness logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: Subjective oral malodor awareness was significantly higher in the group requiring dental care with the score of 1.63 (95% CI 1.00-2.65) compared to the group not requiring dental care. Subjective oral malodor awareness was significantly higher in the severe coated tongue group with the score of 5.31 (95% CI 1.45-19.40) and significantly higher in the moderate coated tongue group with the score of 2.56 (95% CI 1.61-4.08). Subjective oral malodor awareness was significantly higher in the often mouth breathing group with the score of 2.13 (95% CI 1.02-4.47) and significantly higher in the sometimes mouth breathing group with the score of 2.66 (95% CI 1.65-4.29). Conclusions: In order to prevent oral malodor, it is emphasized that regular dental checkups, proper brushing after the meal, and brushing of the tongue are necessary to remove the coated tongue. In addition, the use of supplementary oral care products is considered to be a meaningful oral health behavior.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1013-1024
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• 2017

Objectives: The study investigated health professionals working in the metropolitan area and Jeolla-bukdo, South Korea, from April 30 to May 17, 2017 to understand their views on the issue of including dental hygienists in the scope of medical personnel of South Korea. Methods:A total of 270 surveys were analyzed in this study. The survey consists of 5 questions on general issues; 10 on the awareness of present work of dental hygienist; and 1 on opposition or approval about including dental hygienist in medical personnel. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows 18.0, as well as frequency analysis, cross analysis and logistic regression analysis. Statistical significance level (${\alpha}$) is 0.05. Results: 1. Broken down by gender, male subjects showed more oppositions against including dental hygienists in the category of medical personnel while female subjects showed more favorable opinions (p<0.05). In terms of academic background, those who had graduated from graduate school or higher showed a higher propensity for opposition while those who had graduated from a 3-year college showed a higher tendency for approval on the idea (p<0.05), In terms of occupational type, health professionals showed more opposing views whereas medical technologists showed more approvals than others (p<0.001). 2. With respect to the awareness of work specialty and proficiency of dental hygienist according to general characteristics, the higher the age, the higher the awareness level was. In terms of the occupational type, medical technologists were found to have higher awareness level than health professionals (p<0.001). 3. With respect to the relationship between general characteristics and view on including dental hygienists in medical personnel, the occupational type of health professional was found to have 6.33 times more oppositions than medical technologists. When the awareness level on proficiency of dental hygienist was low, opposition was 6.52 times more frequent (p<0.05). Conclusions: Based on the findings above, the inclusion of dental hygienists in medical personnel seems necessary in properly establishing the specialty and role of dental hygienist in the dentist medical environment of the country in order to enhance national oral health related preventive dental service and expand the demand. To this end, it is necessary to provide nationwide promotion, work to change the awareness of health professionals in other occupational types, and facilitate public promotion for legal ground establishment.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.24-31
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• 2018

This study investigated the effects of critical thinking and empathy on the cultural competence of dental hygienists and students. A total of 529 dental hygiene students were randomly sampled and included as subjects. PASW Statistics for Windows ver. 18.0 was used to obtain the following results. Among the critical thinking sub-domains, cognitive integration was the highest and the lowest. Empathic ability had the highest acceptance factor among the sub-domains. Cultural competence was the highest among the sub-domains, while cultural knowledge was the lowest. According to their general characteristics, subject age, grade, religion, and economic level influenced the cultural capacity. Cultural awareness and sensitivity were high when there were foreign visiting experiences. Cultural awareness, sensitivity, skills, and knowledge were high when subjects had experienced multicultural education (p<0.05). Cultural awareness, sensitivity, skill, experience, and knowledge were correlated with critical thinking and cultural competence, among which cultural sensitivity showed the highest correlation (p<0.001). There was a correlation between cultural awareness and sensitivity, skill, and experience among the empathy and cultural competency sub-domains (p<0.001). The factors influencing cultural awareness included intellectual integration, openness, prudence, and perspective-taking (p<0.001). The factors influencing cultural sensitivity included intellectual integration, openness, and empathic concern (p<0.001). The factors influencing cultural skill included intellectual integration, creativity, and conductivity (p<0.001). The factors influencing cultural experience included prudence, objectivity, perspective-taking, and personal distress (p<0.001). Finally, the factors influencing cultural knowledge included creativity and conductivity (p<0.001). The results indicate that dental hygiene students should be equipped with cultural competence to enhance critical thinking and empathy required by the modern society and optimized dental hygiene courses should be provided for multicultural subjects.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.635-643
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate dental hygienists understanding of the provisions of oral health care and awareness for the elderly. Methods: A survey was conducted among 285 dental hygienists, currently practicing around Gwangju province, Korea. The questionnaire contained questions on general characteristics of the subjects (5 items), oral health status of the elderly (5 items), and awareness (8 items) among the dental hygienists. The data were analyzed using a chi-square test. IBM SPSS 21.0 program was used for all statistical analyses. Results: The results showed that 47.7% of the dental hygienists took care of 1 to 5 elderly patients per day; they could not provide high quality oral health education to these patients because of lack of knowledge, lack of treatment time, and excessive workload. An analysis of the hygienists' professional educational experience related to oral healthcare of the elderly during university years showed that the older and more experienced hygienists' were less likely to have completed this education, i.e., 22.05% and 10.9%, respectively (p<0.001). Of all the dental hygienists, 62.8% were interested in oral health problems of the elderly, and 34.4% of dental hygienists for geriatric oral care were the most needed for geriatric oral care education (p<0.001). Conclusions: According to these results, it is important that dental hygienists participate in training on oral healthcare for the elderly and develop various programs for managing the oral health of the elderly.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.807-817
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• 2013

Objectives : The aim of the study is to investigate the awareness towards water fluoridation program in the residents of Yongin. Methods : Subjects were 1,016 adults over 19 years old living in Yongin for more than one year. A self-administered survey was done by structured questionnaires. Some of the questionnaires were filled out through direct phone call. Results : Positive awareness of water fluoridation program accounted for 36.5 percent and 61.0 percent of the residents agreed to the program. Only nine percent 9.0 percent opposed to water fluoridation. Conclusions : Yongin City Government is trying to make the residents understand the water fluoridation. Positive public opinion towards the water fluoridation can lead to the implementation of the water fluoridation. So it is necessary to provide information of water fluoridation program to the residents.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.79-89
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• 2024

Objectives: This was carried out to develop an integrated care convergence curriculum. Methods: An online survey was conducted on 312 public health college students, and frequency analysis, t-test, ANOVA, and chi-square test were conducted. Results: Awareness of convergence education (2.55) and experience of convergence education (10.3%) were low, but those with education experience had high awareness of integrated care and convergence education (p<0.001). The need for education (3.07) and manpower training (3.14) were both high, and the preferred training content was first aid (3.57). Conclusions: Additional research is needed on the development of integrated care convergence curriculum.