State of visiting oral health programs and the views of dental hygienists in public dental clinics

방문구강보건사업의 운영현황 및 보건(지)소 치과위생사의 견해

The purpose of this study was to examine the state of visiting oral health programs and the opinions of dental hygienists on the programs in a bid to help boost the efficiency of visiting oral health programs, To meet the goals, 341 dental hygienists in public dental clinics across the nation were asked to join a questionaire survey via e-mail in September 2007, After their views were investigated, the following findings were given: 1. In regard to the management of visiting oral health programs, 44,3 percent of the respondents carried out visiting oral health programs, and 48,3 percent of that group did that in association with visiting health care programs, There were differences among the public dental clinics in beneficiaries of visiting oral health programs, beneficiary selection criteria and the details of oral health programs, which indicated the necessity of the development of standardized models. 2. As to difficulties in fulfilling visiting health care programs, a shortage of professional knowledge was viewed as the greatest hurdle, All their scores were above average, which implied that they were not able to perform the programs successfully. 3. As for the necessity and additional expected effects of visiting oral health programs, the largest number of the dental hygienists who carried them out expected that the programs would serve to change the mind-set of locals about themselves, And the others who didn't placed the most emphasis on cooperation from other departments, and the two groups had a statistically significantly different opinion. 4. Concerning the details of visiting health care programs, the dental hygienists who performed the programs found it most necessary to provide oral health education to employees and families to be visited, The others who didn't considered it most necessary to offer oral health education to people to be visited, The necessity of denture and prosthesis was least stressed by both groups, and they took a significantly different view of treatment for dental diseases, denture and prosthesis. 5. Regarding how to bolster visiting health care programs, the dental hygienist group that carried them out put more emphasis on everything suggested in the survey, Specifically, they attached greater importance to securing sufficient budget, establishing legal foundation, setting up an administration system and determining the directions for the programs in a realistic manner, which signified the desperate need for administrative and institutional backing.