An Analysis of the Job Performance in Operative Restoration by Dental Hygienists

치과위생사의 치과보존분야 직무수행 현황 분석

The purpose of this study is to analyze the dental hygienists' overall performance in operative restoration and the clinical performance in operative restoration according to dental hygienists' career and to provide basic data for establishing the appropriate range of dental hygienists' work. Subjects of this study are 339 dental hygienists working at dental clinic and hospital nationwide, selected by their working place, career, type of clinic, and location of clinical institution. The distribution of people who responded to the survey shows that 81 belong to beginner level(less than 2 years since entering clinic), 115 intermediate level(2 to 3 years since entering clinic), 81 higher level(4 to 5 years since entering clinic) and 62 advanced level(more than 6 years since their entering clinic). In terms of the types of clinical institution, 178 belong to dental clinics and 161 belong to dental hospitals. The survey used in this study are focused on perception about clinical performance in operative dentistry and adequacy of the work. Operative dentistry consists of operative restoration and endodontic therapy. The operative restoration consists of 15 categories such as patient welcoming, examination and diagnosis, planning of treatment, anesthesia, control of moisture, cavity preparation, pulp protection, matrix band application, amalgam filling, resin filling, glass ionomer cement filling, abrasive strip removal, rubber dam removal, bite check and polishing, patient education, and arrangement. The reliability was Cronbach's Alpha .9453. SPSS 10.0 for Windows was used to analyze the responses. One way ANOVA was utilized to verify the differences in the dental hygienists' job performance in operative restoration and their job performance according to career. When significant difference was found. Duncan multi comparison post hoc was done. To sum up the results of this study, patient welcoming look the first place in the operative restoration. It was followed by patient education, examination and diagnosis, introducing treatment plan, resin filling, glass ionomer cement filling, amalgam filling, bite check and polishing, anesthesia, pulp protection, control of moisture, abrasive strip removal, cavity preparation, matrix band application, rubber dam removal, and anesthesia. In terms of the clinical performance by career, there were significant differences in 19 activities such as medical eraluation, oral examination, patient charting, intra oral readio graphs, firm developing fixing mounting, curing light gun, education of attention content after operation. Based on the results of this study, the specific range of operative restoration for dental hygienists should be focused on providing basic data for dentists' diagnosis, alleviation of fear and aching accompanied by injection and anesthesia, data providing for dentists' decision of anesthesia degree, and maximization of control of moisture.