A Study on the Image of Dental Hygienists in Dental Patients and Caregivers

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The purpose of this study was to examine the image of dental hygienists. The subjects in the study were 396 patients and their caregivers who visited 14 dental hospitals and dentists' offices in and around Seoul. After a survey was conducted, the following findings were given: 1. The people investigated gave a mean of 4.0 to the image of dental hygienists. Dental hygienists rated highest in terms of looking neat and tidy(4.33), and were given the lowest marks in arbitrary job performance(3.46). 2. There appeared four different types of dental hygienist images, which made a 59.824 prediction of the image of dental hygienists in general. A typical image(4.11) was most dominant, followed by professional one(4.07), personal one(4.01) and social one(3.73). 3. The relations between the general characteristics of the respondents and their image of dental hygienists could be described as below: 1) By age, those who were in their 60s(4.12) had the best image of dental hygienists, and the teenagers(3.90) had the worst image of them. 2) By gender, the men(4.05) looked at dental hygienists more positively than the women(3.96). They had a significantly different opinion on the social image of dental hygienists according to gender(pE0.05). 3) By marital status, the married people(4.00) had a better image of dental hygienists than the unmarried ones(3.95). 4) As for the influence of the type of dental institutions, they had a more favorable image of dental hygienists in dentists' offices(4.13) than in dental hospitals(3.88). There was a broad significant difference in the way they looked at the professional and personal images of dental hygienists according to the type of dental institutions(pE0.001). 5) As to the impact of educational level, those who received community-college or higher education(4.01) had the best image of dental hygienists, and those who received middle-school or lower education(3.91) had the worst image of them. 6) By occupation, the government workers and students(4.07) had the best image of dental hygienists, and the company employees(3.90) had the worst image of them. They took a significantly different view of the social image of dental hygienists according to occupation(pE0.05). 7) Concerning the impact of the frequency of receiving dental treatment, the respondents who had received it seven times or more(4.16) had the best image of dental hygienists, and those who hadn't(3.79) the worst image of them. There was a wide significant gap according to that frequency. The way they looked at the typical, social and professional images of dental hygienists was quite different significantly according to that frequency as well(pE0.001). 8) As for the influence of whether they were accompanied by caregivers or not, the people who weren't accompanied by caregivers(3.99) had a better image of dental hygienists than those who were(3.97).