• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.153-166
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• 2007

The job of dental hygienists is specialized, and they have to be capable of performing their primary duties including prevention of oral diseases, oral prophylaxis, and oral health education. To ensure their successful job performance, dentists should have an accurate understanding of their duties and need a change of mind-set about them. And there should be written legal and concrete regulations on the coverage of their work in order to let them boost their job performance with pride and a sense of responsibility. The purpose of this study was to examine the actual roles and job performance of dental hygienists in clinical field in an attempt to discuss the substantial job performance of dental hygienists and their job enlargement. It's basically meant to help enhance the efficiency and quality of medical services. The subjects in this study were 471 dental hygienists in dental clinics, dental hospitals, university hospitals and general hospitals across the nation, on whom a survey was conducted in person from March 2 to 25, 2005. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS Win 12.0 program, and the findings of the study were as follows: 1. The major jobs they currently performed included oral health education, hospital management, simple duties, extensive dental hygiene duties and joint treatment assistance. They hoped to continue to be responsible for oral health education, preventive treatment and extensive dental hygiene duties. 2. As for their current job by age, extensive dental hygiene duties, preventive treatment, joint treatment assistance, preserving treatment, prosthetic treatment and pediatric treatment were most conducted by the dental hygienists who were at the age of 26 to less than 31, and those who were at the age of 31 and up were most responsible for hospital management and simple duties. 3. As to job awareness by workplace, their workload was statistically significantly different according to their workplace. The hospital employees took care of more work than those in clinics. 4. Concerning job awareness by age, the younger dental hygienists suffered more role conflicts and were given a less free hand in work handling, the middle-aged group's job was uncertain. Legal regulations about the coverage of their work should be prepared in detail as a measure to stir up their responsible job performance and pride. In order to take advantage of experienced dental hygienists, their duties should be more differentiated and specialized, and their working conditions should be improved to boost their job satisfaction. That is, they should be given ample chances for promotion and serving as a middle manager and be given fair treatment according to their career. If their work is accurately darified and specialized based on career, it will boost the efficiency of dental treatment. Dental hygienists also should direct sustained efforts into self-development in order to become a skilled and professional oral health personnel.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.197-211
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• 2007

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).

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.107-116
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• 2020

Objectives: This study applied the co-orientation model to investigate the degree to which dental hygienists and dentists recognize the efficiency of dental hygienists' non-surgical periodontal therapy work; the basic data can be provided as a systematic arrangement that can be applied and extended to dental clinics to raise mutual understanding. Methods: Independent sample t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and paired t-tests were conducted with a total of 888 subjects (530 dental hygienists and 358 dentists) using SPSS Statistics 22.0. Results: The analysis showed that, dental hygienists had higher recognition of the efficiency of their work (p<0.001) than dentists, with respect to all items(p>0.05). With respect to subjective agreement, dental hygienists estimated lower recognition among dentists than other dental hygienists and dentists estimated higher recognition among dentists than dental hygienists. With respect to accuracy, dentists' estimation was lower than the actual recognition among dental hygienists and dental hygienists' estimation was higher than the actual recognition among dentists in all cases except the efficiency of dental hygienists' patient education work and constant learning. Conclusions: There was wide gap between dental hygienists and dentists in recognition of the efficiency of dental hygienists' non-surgical periodontal therapy work. Actions must be taken to raise mutual understanding between dental hygienists and dentists regarding dental hygienists' non-surgical periodontal therapy work, to spread this recognition throughout the dental industry, and to implement systematic support at dental clinics.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.1235-1243
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• 2012

This study was attempted in order to offer basic data for performing systematic and desirable task through improving job by surveying the actual condition and the task weight in dental hygienists. As a result of analyzing daily task weight in subjects of this study, the ratio of medical-cure cooperation task was indicated to be highest with 35.45%. It was indicated to be in order of periodontal therapy service with 21.54%, of administration & management task with 16.08%, of oral health education task with 15.88%, and of preventive treatment service with 11.23%. As for kind-based utilization ratio of the oral health education contents and oral health education data, a toothbrushing education method by subject was indicated most highly with 3.70 points. It was indicated to be in order of usage on oral hygiene device with 3.51 points, of educational method on regular check-up with 3.26 points, of educational method of preventing dental disease with 3.13 points, and of educational method on diet control with 1.39 points. Jaw-plate model was indicated to be used the most with 38.0%. It was indicated to be in order of orally explaining with 23.9% and of camera inside the mouth with 12.2%. Thus, establishment of a system is considered to be necessary in order to promote quality of oral health education for patients in the future by performing diverse programs with high utilization value in addition to a steady interest.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.1221-1228
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• 2012

This study was carried out in order to offer basic data for preventing halitosis by understanding about the factors related to self-awareness of halitosis and about the relationship with stress and compulsion targeting students for the Department of Dental Hygiene. As a result of research, the whole subjects were indicated to be 1.76 points for the mean in stress, 1.62 points for the mean in compulsion, and 1.84 points for the mean in self-awareness of halitosis. The group of feeling the tongue to be white and the inside of the mouth to be sticky in own symptom inside the mouth was indicated to be 2.02 points(p=0.000) for stress and 2.00 points(p=0.000) for self-awareness of halitosis. The group of often feeling a sense of oral dryness was indicated to be 2.23 points(p=0.000) for stress, 1.95 points(p=0.000) for compulsion, and 1.89 points(p=0.046) for self-awareness of halitosis. The self-awareness of halitosis stood at r=0.133 with compulsion, thereby having indicated slight positive correlation. Stress and compulsion showed high positive correlation with r=0.425. Accordingly, there is a need of infusing recognition through steady education as a dental hygienist who will have interest in emotional factor along with grasping diverse causes for halitosis, and who will be in charge of a future patients' halitosis.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.273-281
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• 2019

The purpose of the study was to analyze smoking impact factors, knowledge about effects of smoking and effects of oral health-related quality of life. The subjects were 165 male dental clinic visitors. The survey was conducted from November to December 2018. The examinations were smoking impact factors, knowledge about effects of smoking on oral health, oral health-related quality of life, and recognition of smoking cessation support in dentistry. Survey data were analyzed using statistical programs of PASW Statistics ver. 18.0. Smoking groups were more stressful than non-smoking groups(13.0, 9.97) and drinking frequency was higher(2/week, 0.96/week)(p<0.05). Smoking had a significant correlation with stress(r= .283, p<0.001) and stress with OHIP(r= -.263, p<0.001). Regression results show that stress and frequency of drinking are significant factors(p<0.05). Smoking cessation support service was recognized by 32.9 %, but experience of service was only 19.4 %. Smoking cessation support of dentistry was answered positively by 65.5 %. The above results reveal the need for stress and drinking control, oral health education, and active support of oral health professionals for smoking cessation.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.181-192
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• 2001

The purpose of this was to evaluate the level of knowledge about Hepatitis B and AIDS among dental hygiene students at six dental hygiene educational programs in nationwide, compare the findings to those of Song's study. 1703 dental hygiene students surveyed by mail and answered a questionnaire, using the questionnaire used developed by DiClemente el al., on Hepatitis B vaccination, antibody production, experience of unintentional needle stick injuries, experience of surgical operation and blood transfusion, personal risk factors for HBV and HIV, management of HBV and HIV postexposure management et al. The data indicated that dental hygiene students (79.0%) in this study had more HIV vaccination than dental hygiene(74.3%) in Song's study. As for recognition of antibody production after Hepatitis B vaccination, only 34.6% of respondents answered they knew having antibody production and 95% of respondents knew not having antibody production. Over one-half of the respondents (55%) answered they didn't even recognize having antibody production. 52.3 percent of dental hygiene students experienced unintentional needle stick injuries. The findings on the knowledge about Hepatitis B and AIDS were that dental hygienists (76.5 points) received higher mean score than those of dental hygiene students (71.0 points) and that the distribution of right answer rate also showed wider range in dental hygiene students (27.7~97.5%) than those of dental hygienist (41.2~99.5%). There were no statistical differences among dental hygiene education programs. Finding of this study support that the curriculum of dental hygiene program should include instruction on sources and methods of transmission of infectious diseases, risk of virus transmission in the workplace and principles of infection control. Furthermore, infection-control practices should be utilized routinely and their application to dental personnel, management of HBV and HIV postexposure management. Furthermore, for preventing the further spread of infectious diseases (HBV, HIV and AIDS${\cdots}$) caused by bloodborne viruses, imposing an obligation rather than recommendation on Hepatitis B vaccination to all dental personnel and routinely utilizing infection-control guidelines for all dental patients in dental practices (include dental educational programs) should be accomplished by coordination the government agency.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.85-99
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of dental hygienists about on-the-job training in public health sector in an effort to stir up their on-the-job training(OJT) and to facilitate the planning of successful educational programs. A survey was conducted nationwide for two months in October and November 2006, and the answer sheets from 811 dental hygienists were analyzed. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. 40.7 percent of the dental hygienists investigated never underwent OJT geared toward public officials, which wasn't linked to oral health. 2. As for the experiences of professional oral health education(or OJT) as members of local public dental clinics by service term, 64.9 percent of the dental hygienists who had worked for less than 10 years never received that kind of education, and 70.5 percent of those with a 15-year or more career received that education just once(p<0.05). The dental hygienists who received that education viewed it favorably, as they found that to be conducive to their job performance. In the event of those who didn't receive that education, a lack of chance to do that was the most common reason. 3. In regard to motivation of receiving professional oral health education(or OJT), the largest rate of the dental hygienists who stood at 71.9 percent received that education voluntarily in pursuit of self-development and better job performance. The training programs provided by the oral health division of the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs were excluded in this study. As to educational spending by the dental hygienists or their employers over the past two years, 56.9 percent paid 100 thousand to less than 500 thousand won. 46.6 percent never paid for that, and about 15.5 percent received education at their own expenses. Concerning the form of OJT, lectures were provided to 50.3 percent. 4. The dental hygienists who worked in local public health clinics hoped for more intensive and better education and training related to oral health projects.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.307-315
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• 2012

Objectives : This study is to make basic materials for an effective human resource management plan by understanding relationship between self-esteem and intention of transfer of dental hygienists who are working in dental diagnostic institutions and to contribute to human resource program development for promoting development into a dental hygienic profession. Methods : This survey was carried out for dental hygienists who are engaging in dental diagnostic institutions in part of Cheonbuk Area by survey researchers for 10 days from September 14 to September 24, 2011 by visiting dental clinics after respondents replied to a questionnaire after listening to explanations of study purposes. Total 210 copies of questionnaire were retrieved and 201 copies were used as materials for the final analysis excluding 9 copies with insincere replies. Results : 1. The total average grade for self-esteem of study objects was 32.83(${\pm}3.08$) points. The total average of intention of transfer was found to be 32.91(${\pm}7.50$) points. 2. Self-esteem by satisfaction on the current workplaces was shown to be high with 'very satisfactory'(p=0.028), which has significant difference statistically (p<0.05). 3. In the intention of transfer by general characteristics, 20-25 years ($35.15{\pm}7.17$) was higher than over 40 years old ($23.44{\pm}3.47$) by age to show significant difference statistically (p=0.000). As for married status, single ($34.42{\pm}6.64$) was found to have higher intention of transfer than married ($30.28{\pm}8.11$), which showed significant difference statistically (p=0.018). As for the education background, 3 year course college graduates ($33.49{\pm}7.25$) showed more intention of transfer than over undergraduate students ($22.75{\pm}9.43$) to show significance statistically (p=0.002) and in the working years 1~3 years ($34.40{\pm}7.07$) was found to have more intention of transfer than over 10 years ($25.13{\pm}5.08$) to be significant statistically (p=0.000). The annual income less than 25 million won ($34.10{\pm}6.54$) showed more intention of transfer than over 40 million won ($21.00{\pm}0.00$) (p=0.000). 4. Intention of transfer by satisfaction of current workplaces was found to be high in 'very unsatisfactory', which showed significant difference statistically (p<0.001). 5. Pure correlation between self-esteem and intention of transfer came into existence and intention of transfer was found to be higher as self-esteem is higher. Conclusions : Through results as above, intention of transfer of dental hygienists was found to be higher as self-esteem is higher. Various follow-up studies which are to perform empirical verification by analyzing various factors which can affect intention of transfer based on this and using them as control variables are thought to be tried.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.379-389
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• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to improve the practice level on dental hygienists'infection prevention by examining the actual condition of dental hygienists'infection control and analyzing factors of having influence upon this. Methods : A questionnaire survey was carried out from July 18, 2011 to August 26 targeting dental hygienists who work at medical institutions where are located in Daegu, Busan and Ulsan Metropolitan Cities and Gyeongsangnam buk-do. After then, the following conclusions were obtained. Results : 1. As a result of surveying practice by item in the practice level of infection prevention, the items with high practice level in the management of infectious diseases were surveyed to be 12 months(89.6%) for health-checkup cycle and to be having experience of vaccination(78.0%) for hepatitis type B. The items with high practice level in the management and practice of washing hands were indicated to be in order of regularly paper towel(87.7%) and hands cleaning after regular medical examination(80.5%). In the item of the practice on wearing and managing individual protection equipment, regularly wearing(93.1%) rubber globes given washing implements was indicated to be high. 2. As a result of analyzing working career, working institution, working region, and practice level of infectious-disease management, the appearance of fulfilling infection control guidelines at medical institution and the experience of education for infection control were indicated to have difference depending on working institution. Regularly health checkup was indicated to have difference depending on respondents' working career and working institution. 3. The whole average in the practice level of infection prevention according to working career, working institution, and working region was indicated to be 2.55 out of 3-point perfection. 4. Wearing latex gloves was indicated to have statistically significant difference depending on working institution(p<0.001) and working region(p<0.001). The exchange of latex gloves every patient and the use of paper apron had statistically significant difference depending on working region(p<0.001). 5. As a result of comparing the frequency of using protection equipment for preventing infection according to the management of infectious diseases, the statistically significant difference was shown depending on the appearance of infection control guidelines at medical institution(p<0.001), the appearance of having experience of health checkup(p<0.01), and the appearance of having experience of vaccination for hepatitis type B(p<0.05). Conclusions : The above-mentioned findings showed that the denture satisfaction of the denture-wearing senior citizens was linked to their subjective oral health awareness. Therefore it will be possible to improve denture-wearing elderly people's quality of life when oral health plans geared toward boosting their denture satisfaction are carried out.