Review on Theoretical Background and Components of Dental Hygiene Process

치위생과정의 이론적 배경과 구성요소에 관한 고찰

The dental hygiene process of care is a model for providing integrated dental hygiene care. It was developed by Mueller-Joseph and Petersen in 1995. The purpose of the dental hygiene process is to provide a framework within which the individualized needs of the client can be met. This model enables the dental hygienist to focus on patient need. The process is composed of five components: assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation. The process of dental hygiene has to move from simple clinical procedure to comprehensive and systemic dental hygiene care. The dental hygiene diagnostic model broadens the biomedical dental model to the behavioral model to include health behavior and health function of individuals. The dental hygiene process will provide a mechanism to develop dental hygienist's role and scope of practice in Korea.