• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.531-538
• /
• 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.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.81-92
• /
• 2013

This research was conducted to analyze the perception of the dental hygienists who work in ordinary dental clinics regading patient safety culture and to analyze the related elements. As for the research subjects and methods, 233 dental hygienists who work at the dental clinics located in Daegu, Gyeongbuk and Jeonnam were targeted from February 6, 2012 to March 5, 2012 to administer survey by utilizing patient safety culture recognition tool. Collected data was subjected to the SPSS 18.0 program to calculate average and standard deviation, and to carry out t-test, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. Dental hygienists' level of perception towards patient safety culture was mid level, and it was demonstrated that there is a correlation with age, work experience at department, title and type of department that affect level of perception towards patient safety culture. In conclusion, Since this research targeted only a limited number of dental hygienists, it is necessary to be cautious about over-interpreting the results. Above anything, it is necessary to carry out repetitive research by targeting medical professionals of diverse jobs.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.667-674
• /
• 2021

Objectives: This study aimed to enhance the role of dental hygienists by identifying perceptions of child abuse, attitude towards reporting obligations, and awareness of the reporting system, and providing basic data for early detection and reporting of child abuse reporting obligations. Methods: From 2021-06-20 to 2021-09-09, 156 dental hygienists working at dental clinics and hospitals in Gwangju and Jeollanam-do were surveyed. Statistical analyses were performed using t-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation analysis. Results: The points for awareness of child abuse, obligatory reporting attitude, and awareness of mandatory reporting system were found to be 3.52, 3.01, and 2.30, respectively. A significant positive correlation was observed between the negative attitude to report child abuse (r=0.332, p<0.01) and the perception of the mandatory reporting system (r=0.343, p<0.01). Conclusions: This study confirmed that various educational programs and research are needed for the early detection and reporting of child abuse by dental hygienists.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.503-511
• /
• 2012

Objectives : This research seeks to present the data needed for the development of coping strategy, following medical market opening by identifying dental hygienists' perspective and coping measures towards the opening. Methods : One hundred eighty-eight dental hygienists were targeted to identify their level of perception towards medical market opening, attitude towards medical market opening, question of whether they agree or not with the opening and reasons, and coping measures and benefits of the medical market opening. t-test, chi-square test and cross-tabulation analysis were used for the analysis Results : First, team leaders are more aware of the medical market opening and hold greater sense of crisis towards opening compared to the rank and file. Second, the reasons cited for agreeing with the medical market opening included improvement of medical services' quality and diversification of services. As for the reasons for disagreeing, they cited the increase medical expenses paid by public. Third, limitation of the hospital management technique was cited the most when it comes to the scope of Korean hospitals' management crisis, followed by the limitations of the diagnosis procedure, limitations of the medical services, limitations of the medical techniques and increase in the number of large hospitals, in the order cited. Fourth, team leaders perceive greater need to seek coping measures from the aspect of realizing medical insurance fee from the policy development, service and system level aspects when it comes to the coping measures depending on their ranks. Conclusions : Therefore, Dental Hygienist has a comparatively low awareness of medical market opening, coping measures need to be explored to cope with the medical market opening by ensuring the dissemination of accurate knowledge through the education on the fees for dental hygienist and seminars in relation to the medical market opening.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.34 no.8
• /
• pp.1331-1340
• /
• 2010

This study examines if the uniforms of dental hygienists influence the formation of professional identity. A self-administered survey was conducted on 534 dental hygienists in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon from March 28 to April 15, 2007. The dependent variable was professional identity. The independent variables were the organizational characteristics, uniform characteristics, and attitudes towards uniform. For the data analysis, we used t-test and hierarchical regression analysis. Using a t-test, we found the relationship between the color of the uniform and attitudes towards uniforms. The white uniform turned out to be associated with a positive perception of uniform function and uniform-image fit. The result of hierarchical regression analysis shows that the color of the uniform, perception of uniform functioning, and uniform satisfaction were statistically significant in predicting professional identity. We also tested the same model for two groups, those with and without image concern. The test results show that the significant factors were different for these two groups. This study confirms the function of uniforms in constructing professional identity and implies the need to have broader perspectives in studying uniforms.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.857-863
• /
• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of the study is to investigate the awareness and activation towards dental medical tourism. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 195 dental hygienists in Seoul from January 30 to September 15, 2014. Data were analyzed by one way ANOVA, chi square and t test using SPSS 19.0 program. the questionnaire consisted of general characteristics of the subjects, awareness towards medical tourism, medical tourism related hospitals, activation of Korean medical tourism, fields of medical tourism, and improvement of medical tourism. The questionnaire was adapted and modified from Kim and Kim by Likert scale. Results: Dental hygienists gave the high perception and possibility towards medical tourism (94.1%). Those carrying out medical tourism accounted for 39.5 percent. The most difficult problem was communication with foreigners (80.5%). The performance of prosthesis and anesthesia was the most specialized area that supported the medical tourism (84.1%). In order to improve the medical tourism implementation, dental medical technology must be strengthened (39.8%). Conclusion: The desirable dental medical tourism must be carried out by proficient dental medical manpower, higher technology, active participation and financial support by the government. This dental medical tourism will provide job opening for the dental hygienists.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.1067-1080
• /
• 2017

Objectives: This study analyzed the perception towards clinical practice education content held by dental hygiene students in dental institutions and their perceived importance of dental hygienists' clinical duties. Methods: The subjects of this study were 182 dental hygienists who were working at dental institutions in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Chungcheong areas. A survey was conducted with a self-administered questionnaire. In the questionnaire, the clinical practice contents were classified into observation, preparation, and performance, and the importance of clinical duty was measured with a 3-point scale. For the clinical practice contents and the importance of duty, descriptive statistics and chi-square test were performed, and the study results were analyzed using STATA 11.0. Results: With regard to clinical practice contents, observation was mainly performed in oral & maxillofacilal radiology, preventive dentistry, periodontal medicine and oral medicine. In primary care and infection control, practice and observation were mainly performed. In the department of orthodontics and pediatric dentistry, observation and preparation were mainly conducted, while in oral surgery, conservative dentistry observation, preparation and practice were all conducted. With regard to clinical practice contents according to the dental institution, there were statistically significant differences in the type of dental institution and the duty (p>0.05). In terms of the importance of dental hygienist's duty, infection control, toothbrushing education for each patient, removal of plaque, and patient education after surgery were considered important. Conclusions: For clinical practice of the dental hygiene department, the education contents should be standardized in accordance with the importance of the dental hygienist's duty, a protocol for operation of practice should be developed, and a method of standardization of evaluation should be sought in the future.

• 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.