Abstract
Objectives : This study was conducted to investigate the actual state of dental hygienist's behavior for infection control during dental practice and radiologic examination and to evaluate the dental hygienist's awareness of the importance of infection control in dental office. Methods : A survey on 218 dental hygienists was carried out. The respondents to complete a questionnaire were the dental hygienists who were in dental office on Gwang-ju area or attended complementary training conducted by the Seoul Branch of Korean Dental Hygienists Association in April 2010. The data were collected and analyzed with $x^2$ test, t-test, ANOVA using SPSS program. Results : The ratios of educational experience for infection control in dental practice and radiologic examination room accounted for 87.6% and 30.3% respectively. Behavior degree of mask-wearing in the dental practice and radiologic examination room were $4.60{\pm}0.70$ and $3.77{\pm}1.09$ respectively. Behavior degree of glove-wearing in the dental practice and radiologic examination room were $4.40{\pm}0.91$ and $3.68{\pm}1.17$ respectively. In case of the relation between educational experience and behavior degree in mask-wearing or glove-wearing, there was no significant difference in the performance of mask or glove wearing during dental practice, and mask-wearing during radiologic examination. However, there was a significant difference (p<0.05) in the performance of glove-wearing during radiologic examination, which revealed that behavior degree between the respondents having educational experience and the others no having it were $3.92{\pm}1.19$ and $3.58{\pm}1.14$ respectively. The surface disinfection control for radiation and protective equipments used in radiologic examination room was done by occasional needs without premeditated schedules. Conclusions : The result of this study shows lower behavior degree during radiologic examination compared with one during dental practice. We suggest that there are needs to raise the awareness of infection control and to improve infection control behavior, and through this study, the importance of education was verified.
