• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.875-890
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• 2019

Objectives: This study aims to establish the concept of "dental assistance" within the dental field and to identify the scope of dental assistance, which can be utilized in order to distinguish the scope of work between jobs. Methods: The literature on dental hygienist work and dental assistance was reviewed, and the laws and precedents related to dental assistance were examined. Results: The criteria for judging the legitimacy of dental assistance included the following: whether the performance was conducted under the guidance and supervision of a doctor; whether there was a possibility of an aftereffect or side effects of the procedure; whether education was conducted within the curriculum; and whether it was evaluated in the national licensing examination. In addition, the work of the assistant in dental surgery and treatment is judged comprehensively by considering the type of dental surgery and treatment, invasive degree, necessity of expertise, and work proficiency of the dental hygienist. Therefore, it is suggested that dental hygienists may be of assistance for dental treatment/surgery because they meet the requirements of dental professionals, such as dental hygiene curriculum, national licensing examination, duties in the field of dentistry, and work proficiency. Conclusions: Dental assistance (including assistance in dental surgery) for dental treatment, dental/medical history taking, taking vital signs, and blood glucose monitoring should be permitted within the realm of dental hygienist work. Therefore, the actual expertise of dental hygienists should be reflected legally and the work of dental hygienists should be realized.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.221-229
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to confirm job satisfaction, job performance, and turnover intention according to dental hygienists' clinical assistance and preventive work. Methods: The collected data (N=380) were analyzed with independent t-tests and Pearson correlations using SPSS Statistics ver. 21.0 (IBM Co., Armonk, NY, USA). Results: The results indicated that the higher the overall job satisfaction of the dental hygienist, the higher their job performance and the lower their turnover intention (p<0.05). The results of the comparison of job satisfaction showed that preventive work was higher than dental hygienists' clinical assistance in all items except "I was pleased with work" (p<0.05). The results of the comparison of job performance showed that preventive work was higher than dental hygienists' clinical assistance in all items except "I have never complained, even if things go wrong" (p<0.05). The results of the comparison of turnover intention showed that clinical assistance was higher than dental hygienists' preventive work in all items (p<0.05). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and job performance have positive effects for preventive work. Therefore, dental clinics need to improve the actual environment so that dental hygienists can focus on preventive work.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 2019

Korean dental hygienists perform more tasks in dental clinics than are described in the law. The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual work of Korean dental hygienists in dental clinics using an observational study design. Two dental hygienists observed and recorded the work performed in 1 day from the time of commencement to the time of leaving work by 18 dental hygienists working in the dental clinic in a single area. Data management, prevention of infection, counseling, calculus removal, radiography, assistance of fixed orthodontic treatment, assistance of fixed prosthetic treatment, and preparation for implant surgery were recorded. Among the tasks that take more than 1 min, the most time-consuming tasks were document management, infection control, consultation, calculus removal, preparation for implant surgery, assistance of orthodontic treatment, and assistance of fixed prosthetic treatment. Korean dental hygienists are performing various tasks, such as infection control, dental hospital/clinic management, oral disease prevention, and dental treatment assistants.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.70-78
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• 2021

Background: The aim of this study was to analyze the public demand for information about the job of dental hygienists by mining text data collected from the online Q & A section on an Internet portal site. Methods: Text data were collected from inquiries that were posted on the Naver Q & A section from January 2003 to July 2020 using "dental hygienist job recognition," "role recognition," "medical assistance," and "scaling" as search keywords. Text mining techniques were used to identify significant Korean words and their frequency of occurrence. In addition, the association between words was analyzed. Results: A total of 10,753 Korean words related to the job of dental hygienists were extracted from the text data. "Chi-lyo (treatment)," "chigwa (dental clinic)," "ske-illing (scaling)," "itmom (gum)," and "chia (tooth)" were the five most frequently used words. The words were classified into the following areas of job of the dental hygienist: periodontal disease treatment and prevention, medical assistance, patient care and consultation, and others. Among these areas, the number of words related to medical assistance was the largest, with sixty-six association rules found between the words, and "chi-lyo," "chigwa," and "ske-illing" as core words. Conclusion: The public demand for information about the job of dental hygienists was mainly related to "chi-lyo," "chigwa," and "ske-illing" as core words, demonstrating that scaling is recognized by the public as the job of a dental hygienist. However, the high demand for information related to treatment and medical assistance in the context of dental hygienists indicates that the job of dental hygienists is recognized by the public as being more focused on medical assistance than preventive dental care that are provided with job autonomy.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.155-163
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• 2018

This study's aim was to investigate their opinions to improve the educational system for dental hygienists on the basis of their duties as dental hygienists. The qualitative study was conducted among 19 dental hygienists at Daejeon, Korea from July to August 2016. Two researchers followed each subject for working hours in a day and recorded all the tasks and time to take for each task. After one day, the researchers met each subject and conducted face-to-face interviews to investigate the opinions about the dental hygiene curriculum and national board examination. The main duties recognized by more than half of the subjects were oral disease prevention including scaling and dental treatment assistance. The subjects' minority opinion about the main duties included radiography, impression taking, dental implant surgery assistance, orthodontic treatment, patient counseling, dental management and staff management, and oral health education. The most important tasks perceived by the subjects were prosthetic and implant impressions, scaling and implant surgery assistance. The subjects' minority opinion about the most important duties included patient counseling and making temporary crowns. The most difficult tasks answered by the subjects were prosthetic and implant impressions and dental implant surgery assistance. The subjects' minority opinion about it included patient counseling, scaling, and making temporary crowns. They mentioned that their curriculum in college was different from the actual work and the national board examination was not reflective of their real duties. We found out Korean dental hygienists had a lot of roles as dental assistants, dental business managers, and so on. We suggest that the law, curriculum and national board examination for dental hygienists should be revised to be able to reflect the reality of the clinical field.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.161-175
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• 2008

With the change of medical environment, people are taking interest not just in treatment but in the prevention of oral diseases. As people's interest in oral diseases increases, the number of dental institutions is increasing continuously and this is heightening the necessity and importance of professional dental hygienists equipped with expert knowledge of oral health. Thus the present study purposed to survey and analyze the current state and weight of works carried out by dental hygienists, and to propose dental hygienists' works desirable in the medical environment changing its focus from treatment to prevention. The results of this study are as follows; 1. In the results of dividing dental hygienists' works into oral examination and preliminary examination, preventive works, assistance to dental treatment, oral health education, hospital administration and management, and surveying the performance rate of these works, the work of the highest performance rate in preliminary examination was collection of patients' systemic history (87.6%). It was also scaling (96.9%) in preventive dental treatment, preparation for treatment (96.5%) in assistance to dental treatment, education on the toothbrushing method (92.3%) in oral health education, and tool disinfection and management (72.2%) in hospital administration and management. 2. When the performance rate was surveyed according to age, institution, and work experience, the performance rate by work area was highest in dental hygienists aged between 27~28, those working at a dental clinic, and those with 4~6 years' work experience. 3. The weight of dental hygienists' works was high in order of assistance to dental treatment (59.1%), observation of oral health condition and preliminary examination (12.4%), oral health education (12.4%), hospital administration and management (10.4%), and preventive dental treatment (5.8%), but in the results of surveying perception on the importance of works, the importance was high in order of oral health education (34.7%), preventive dental treatment (29.0%), observation of oral health condition and preliminary examination (19.3%), assistance to dental treatment (11.2%), and hospital administration and management (5.8%), showing that the weight of works carried out current was different from perception on the weight of works regarded as important. 4. To the question on parts to be developed in response to the change of medical environment, the most frequent answers were the establishment of their roles as preventive dental practitioners (75.7%), and the establishment of their roles as oral health educators (74.9%). This was consistent with the works that dental hygienists gave the highest weight to, and suggested that dental hygienists regarded preventive dental treatment as most important. Development of abilities to give counsel to patients was 55.2%, acquisition of theoretical knowledge of dental treatment 42.1%, improvement in quality as a hospital manager 28.2%, and acquisition of skills to assist dental treatment 23.2%. These show that, even with regard to the development of future oriented dental hygienists' capacities, assistance to dental treatment was perceived less important as it was with regard to the importance of work.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2005

The study aimed to estimate the importance of job tasks, job training requirement and work satisfaction felt by dental hygienists to help dental hygienists work efficiently and effectively. A total of 142 dental hygienists working in dental hospitals located in J participated in the study. A SPSS 10.10 for Windows was used for statistical analysis. The statistical significance was defined as ${\alpha}$=.05. The results of the study are summarized as follows: 1. The mean score for the importance of job tasks was 4.09. The respondents considered dental clinic management and assistance to dentists the most important among their job descriptions showing the mean score of 4.44. The need for job training was 4.15 in average. The respondents wanted to have training on how to make a dental health insurance claim to receive payment other than any training with the mean score of 4.42. The work satisfaction of the respondents was 3.65 in average. The respondents were most satisfied with their work in dental assistance. 2. By the category of job tasks, the levels of importance of job tasks, job training requirement and work satisfaction were higher in plague removal with an ultrasonic scaler related to clinical oral prophylaxis, pit and fissure sealants related to preventive dental treatment and instruction in the correct usage of toothbrush related to public dental health education 3. In dealing with dental radiation machines, the radiation protection was considered the most important. While the training for periapical radiography was most needed, the respondents were satisfied with working in the same area. The levels of job importance, training requirement and work satisfaction were high in preventive dental care in the community performed in relation to the public dental health care. 4. In the dental health insurance claim category, the levels of importance of job task, training requirement and work satisfaction were higher in insurance claiming. The levels of job importance and training requirement were high in dental clinic management and assistance to dentists performed for preventive dental treatment. The work satisfaction was higher in maintaining medical chart records. The levels of job importance, training requirement and work satisfaction were higher in dental assistance in relation to dental protection. 5. There was significant relationship between the level of importance and work experience. Those with a longer period of work experience had higher levels of job importance in dental health insurance claim, dental clinic management and assistance to dentists and the overall task(pE0.05). 6. A significant relationship was observed between the need for job training in dental cleaning and preventive dental treatment and work experience. Those with more than 8 years of work experience demonstrated that job training is most needed(pE0.05). 7. The work satisfaction level was higher in the group with more than 8 years of work experience, compared with those in other work experience periods(pE0.05). 8. A positive correlation was seen between the level of importance and the need for job training among three variables.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.220-229
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• 2022

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the accuracy performance of dental professionals in the classification of different types of dental implant systems (DISs) using panoramic radiographic images with and without the assistance of a deep learning (DL) algorithm. Methods: Using a self-reported questionnaire, the classification accuracy of dental professionals (including 5 board-certified periodontists, 8 periodontology residents, and 31 dentists not specialized in implantology working at 3 dental hospitals) with and without the assistance of an automated DL algorithm were determined and compared. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, confusion matrix, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and area under the ROC curves were calculated to evaluate the classification performance of the DL algorithm and dental professionals. Results: Using the DL algorithm led to a statistically significant improvement in the average classification accuracy of DISs (mean accuracy: 78.88%) compared to that without the assistance of the DL algorithm (mean accuracy: 63.13%, P<0.05). In particular, when assisted by the DL algorithm, board-certified periodontists (mean accuracy: 88.56%) showed higher average accuracy than did the DL algorithm, and dentists not specialized in implantology (mean accuracy: 77.83%) showed the largest improvement, reaching an average accuracy similar to that of the algorithm (mean accuracy: 80.56%). Conclusions: The automated DL algorithm classified DISs with accuracy and performance comparable to those of board-certified periodontists, and it may be useful for dental professionals for the classification of various types of DISs encountered in clinical practice.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.563-572
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to provide basic data for elucidating the clinical experiences of nursing assistants working at dental clinics and for establishing the bases necessary for building a safe working environment for the staff at dental clinics. Methods: From March 28 to August 20, 2022, the study conducted in-depth interviews with nursing assistants working with dental hygienists in dental clinics. The collected data were analyzed using the phenomenological method. Results: The study analyzed the meanings associated with the dental clinical assistance work experiences of nursing assistants in dental clinics. A total of 98 semantic words and 9 sub-categories were extracted, which were ultimately categorized into 4 central meanings: 'imperfect reality', 'work without boundaries', 'putting oneself in someone else's shoes', and 'symbiosis'. Conclusions: The nursing assistants were exposed to an environment where they needed to perform delegated treatment procedures even when they lacked dental work competency. They recognized their gaps in learning and the necessity for designated roles as clinical assistants. Thus, it is necessary to review the allocation and expansion of the work roles of dental practitioners based on the practical and rational realities in dental practice.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2014

In this study we analysed frequency and importance of tasks, and education needs of 114 people working in dental clinics to be a reference of dental hygiene curriculum development. The results are as follow: The order of performance frequency is management support, preventive dental treatment, dental treatment assistance and oral health education, and the order of importance level of tasks and education needs is management support, dental treatment assistance, preventive dental treatment and oral health education. There is no statistically significant difference of performance frequency by general characteristics. The tasks considered most important level depending on general characteristics are oral health education in age of 40s (p<0.05), dental treatment assistance in dental hygienists (p<0.05), management support in women (p<0.05), dental hygienists (p<0.05), and more experienced workers (p<0.05). The most need for Educations depending on general characteristics are oral health education in women (p<0.05), dental treatment assistance in women (p<0.001) and dental hygienists (p<0.001), and management support in Seoul region (p<0.05). The importance of tasks and education needs have correlations. The results showed management support and dental treatment assistance are considered important in dental clinics and most needed job competency for dental hygienists.