This study was based on the experience of dental hygienists' role conflict, and attempted to grasp the nature of the dental hygienist role conflict factor, constituent factor and coping. Giorgi's phenomenological method was used to analyze data collected through in-depth interviews with nine dental hygienists working in a dental clinic. The analysis revealed three central meanings: task scope, role conflicts, and role conflict management style and limitations. In the first category, task scope, the range of the legal scope, and the duties performed by the dental hygienist differed slightly. The second category included role conflict due to interpersonal relationship, work, work environment, competence, and identity as a professional because of role conflict. The third category included the role conflict management style and limitations. Dental hygienists tried to solve the role conflict situation through various efforts. In the face of the reality that the conflict is not solved despite such efforts, the dental hygienists felt the limitation and chose to leave. Dental hygienists are dissatisfied with their roles because of confusion regarding professional values and lack of awareness of the professional workforce due to differences between legal scope and actual practice. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop a tool to quantitatively measure the level of role conflict in dental hygienists and to conduct follow-up studies on the effects of coping strategies by role conflict situations.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hand Strength ; Humans ; Mental Competency ; Methods ; Qualitative Research*

Authors studied the workers' knowledge about the health problems detected through the previous workers' periodic health examination, content of follow-up management and actions taken for their health problem detected on previous health examination. From June to September 1992, workers' periodic health examination was performed on workers employed in 10 companies located in 2 middle-sized Korean cities. A questionnaire survey was done for 150 workers who reported to have D2 result of either hypertension or liver disorder at the previous workers' periodic health examination done in 1991. The results are as follows; 1. Of 160 workers who had D2 result of either hypertension or liver disorder in previous examination one year before, only 85 workers(51.3%, 43 workers with hypertension, 38 workers with live disorder) responded that they have such disorders. The other 65 workers responded to questionnaire were all those with C results. Respondents' knowledge about their diagnoses was relatively precise (95.2% in hypertension group, 94.6% in liver disorder group) but knowledge about classification of diseases was poor. 2. The main efforts to solve the health problem was self management (26 spells, 55.3%), visiting clinic or hospital (6 spells, 12.8%), use of herb medicine (2 spells, 4.3%) and use of drug store (2 spells, 4.3%) in hypertension group. In liver disorder group, 30 spells (71.4%) relied on self management, 6 spells (14.3%) on hospital or clinic and 9 spells (21.4%) had no effort to improve the health problem. Content of self management was low salt diet, quit smoking, regular exercise and quit alcohol drinking in order. Avoidance of salt in diet was high in hypertension group and quitting alcohol drinking was high in liver disorder group. In those with self management, 80.7% of hypertension group and 83.3% of liver disorder group continued previous effort. Those, however, who utilized clinic or hospital, only 16.7% and 50.0% were still visiting hospital or clinic. 3. Fifty seven percent of hypertension group and 64.3% of liver disorder group was presently smoking, 8.5% and 11.9% reduced smoking and 21.3% and 14.3% stopped smoking. Forty nine percent of hypertension group and 28.6% of liver disorder group was presently drinking. Reduced alcohol intake was reported in 29.8% and 40.5%, 12.8% and 23.8% stopped alcohol drinking. Sixty six percent of hypertension group and 73.8% of liver disorder group did no regular exercise, but 12.8% and 11.9% of each group increased their physical exercise for last one year. Forty three percent of hypertension group and 38.1% of liver disorder group was overweight (defined by bodymass index greater or equal than 25). Reduced body weight was reported in 17.2% and 16.7% of each group. Reduced dietary salt intake was high in hypertension group (51.5%). The study results suggest that follow-up management after workers' periodic health examination is not satisfactory. In order to improve this situation, adequate information on the result of the workers' periodic health examination should be distributed to each worker group with health education and counselling.
Alcohol Drinking ; Body Weight ; Classification ; Diagnosis ; Diet ; Drinking ; Exercise ; Follow-Up Studies ; Health Behavior ; Health Education ; Hypertension ; Liver ; Liver Diseases ; Overweight ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Self Care ; Smoke ; Smoking

This study was aimed to identify the diffusion of systemic disease-related knowledge among dental hygienists. Two hundreds and eleven dental hygienists were selected for the study. Data was collected between August 31, 2015 and September 20, 2015 by handing out questionnaires. Returned questionnaires were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANOVA. Dental hygienists showed overall mean of 0.64 on the systemic disease related knowledge. Age, education level, career, and educational experience showed significant influence on the systemic disease knowledge (p<0.01). Dental hygienists revealed overall mean of 0.61 (full mark=1) on the usefulness recognition of systemic disease related knowledge. Age (p<0.001), education level (p<0.01), career (p<0.001), and educational experience (p<0.01) showed significant effects on the usefulness recognition of systemic disease knowledge. Degree of how dental hygienists apply the systemic disease-related knowledge to the service was mean 0.86 (full mark=2). Age (p<0.01), education level (p<0.01), career (p<0.01), and educational experience (p<0.001) had significant impacts on how dental hygienists apply the systemic disease related knowledge to the service. The diffusion of systemic disease knowledge among dental hygienists was 2.17, which represented ‘persuade’. These results indicated that a study is needed to understand the diffusion of systemic disease knowledge among dental hygienists and to identify obstacles in the process. Moreover, an education program should be developed to offer practical training on the systemic disease-related knowledge. Further studies should evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
Dental Hygienists* ; Diffusion* ; Education ; Hand ; Humans

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of professional oral healthcare program in eldery residents long-term care facilities. Ninety-four elderly residents from 5 different facilities in Asan participated in this study. The subjects were divided into 3 groups, with 32 in experimental group I, 30 in experimental group II, and 32 in the control group. Subjects in experimental group I were treated by a dental hygienist with professional oral healthcare and received daily oral care from caregivers who had completed elderly oral healthcare course. Subjects in experimental group II received daily oral care from caregivers who had completed elderly oral healthcare course. Control group received daily oral care from caregivers. These 3 groups were tested for dental plaque, halitosis, tongue coating, and salivary flow at baseline, and after 4 and 12 weeks of treatment. There were significant differences in the dental plaque index between the groups, mediate times, and mediate methods, in halitosis between the mediate methods, and in tongue coating between the mediate times, as well as the mediate methods. Finally, salivary flow was significantly different with regard to mediate methods between experimental group II and the control group. Therefore, to improve the oral health condition of elderly residents, involvement of a part-time dentist and scheduled professional oral healthcare are necessary. Furthermore, elderly oral healthcare education for nursing staff, including managers, should be provided.
Aged* ; Caregivers ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Dental Hygienists ; Dental Plaque ; Dental Plaque Index ; Dentists ; Education ; Halitosis ; Humans ; Long-Term Care* ; Nursing Staff ; Oral Health ; Tongue

Dental hygienists are important members of any dental clinic. They are recognized as reflecting the dental clinic's image because they spend a lot of time with patients. The longer the dental hygienist is employed, the better the relationship with the patients and the medical service provided. The purpose of the present study was to develop a scale to measure factors of long-term employment among dental hygienists. The basic questions were constructed by analyzing tools used to measure job embeddedness and satisfaction. Forty-one questions were developed that measured organizational fit (13), interpersonal relationships (8), job satisfaction (7), duty satisfaction (6), recognition (4), and self-esteem (3). A questionnaire survey was conducted, and the responses from 297 dental hygienists in dental clinics, after the exclusion of 20 incomplete surveys, were used for the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. As revealed by exploratory factor analysis, long-term employment intention was composed of 7 factors consisting of 29 items after the exclusion of 12. The subsequent confirmatory factor analysis revealed 4 factors (“organizational fit,”“professional identity,”“job connectivity,” and “interpersonal relationship”) consisting of 16 items, after the exclusion of 13. Cronbach's α were 0806, 0.836, 0.700, and 0.684 for the four factors. This study is meaningful in that it developed a long-term employment factor measurement tool that can be applied to domestic dental hygienists. Future studies will need to focus more on professional identity and job outcomes. The results of this study and future related ones could be used to improve dental hygienist's continuous service.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists* ; Employment* ; Humans ; Intention ; Job Satisfaction ; Reproducibility of Results*

Background: This study is to identify the factors that affect job satisfaction, psychological ownership, and job engagement of dental hygienists on job performance and use them as basic data for manpower management of dental hygienists. Methods: The survey was conducted by 344 clinical dental hygienists working in dental medical institutions. The collected data is PASW Statistics ver. 20.0 was used to analyze. Results: The job satisfaction level of the dental hygienist was 3.38±0.52, and the question that ‘I feel that my ability to solve problems has improved compared to the past.’ was 3.92±0.80. There were significant differences in job satisfaction, psychological ownership, and job engagement according to general characteristics in age, marriage, education, career, current work experience, and position. There were significant differences in job performance according to general characteristics in age, marriage, education, career, current work experience, position, and number of dental hygienists. Factors influencing job performance were practical activities, income, patient relations, absorption, vigor, dedication, and the number of dental hygienists. Conclusion Finding different ways to use psychological ownership and job engagement through the job satisfaction of a dentalhygienist, and to and to utilize it as basic data for efficient manpower management through job performance.

Background: Job satisfaction of dental hygienists has been discussed continuously in dental hygiene research. It has been the most representative performance variable in dental and human resource management. However, in quantitative research, most of the studies have analyzed the causal relationship with variables related to dental hygienists’ job satisfaction. The existing qualitative research contains only the studies that targeted dental hygienists with an experience of more than 10 years. The present study aimed to understand and to characterize the job satisfaction of dental hygienists with an experience of 2 to 10 years and to compare it with the qualitative research on dental hygienists with an experience of 10 or more years. Methods: An in-depth interview of dental hygienists with 2 to 10 years of experience working in 10 dental clinics was conducted.For data analysis, Giorgi’s analysis method was used. Results: After analyzing the meaning of job satisfaction of dental hygienists, 180 semantic words and 19 subcategories were derived. The results of the interview were categorized into for central meanings: recognition and rewards, work experience and ability improvement, occupational characteristics, and work characteristics. Recognition and rewards included workplace recognition, patient recognition, self-effort and recognition, and the feeling of being rewarded. Work experience and ability improvement included various work experiences and factors relates to improving the work ability. Occupational characteristics included professional job, interest and persistence, job extensibility, and no burden of employment. Work characteristics included working conditions and separation of work and private life. Conclusion The development of tools to measure the level of dental hygienists’ job satisfaction after long-term service and to conduct follow-up research regarding ways and effects to improve job satisfaction is needed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Korean version of a tool used to measure dental anxiety and fear. The Index of Dental Anxiety and Fear (IDAF-4C+) was translated into Korean, and modified and revised to adapt to Korean culture. A survey was conducted among 457 patients in a dental clinic. The validity and reliability were determined using PASW Statistics ver. 18.0 and IBM SPSS AMOS ver. 21.0. Factor analysis showed that Korean version of IDAF-4C+ was composed of three elements: dental anxiety, dental phobia, feared stimulus. The validity of the model was examined by confirmatory factor analysis and satisfied relevant requirements. All elements had convergent validity and discriminant validity exceeding requirements to ensure validity. Cronbach's α showed good reliability. In conclusion, the findings of this study demonstrate that the Korean version of IDAF-4C+ has high validity and reliability. Furthermore, it can be used in clinical practice and research to decrease dental anxiety and fear.
Dental Anxiety* ; Dental Clinics ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results*

This study aimed at comprehending the duty, role, and difficulty of intermediary manager through in-depth investigation of dental hygienist intermediary managers experienced over 10 years working in a dental clinic. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 dental intermediary managers and Giorgi's analysis method was used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that the work experience of the dental hygienist intermediary managers appeared in the range of "becoming an intermediary manager through various processes", "various duties that they experience as an intermediary manager", "difficulty as an intermediary manager", "ability that they perceive as necessary for being a dental intermediary manager", and "worthiness they feel as the intermediary manager". The dental intermediary managers complained of difficulties at work, and appeared to perform various tasks such as human resource management, clinic management support, and patient's management. Accordingly, the researcher considers that research on dental intermediary managers' capacity development necessary.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists ; Humans ; Methods

This study was aimed at exploring the meaning and essence of the conflict experiences of clinical dental hygienists. In-depth interviews with 13 dental hygienists working in a dental clinic were conducted. Giorgi's method was used for qualitative analysis of the data. Conflict experiences of clinical dental hygienists were categorized into four central meaning as task conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, organizational environment conflicts, and conflict management style. Participants felt more sensitive towards the attitudes of people than treatment itself. Further studies on the multifaceted approach to conflict experiences of dental hygienists should be made. Additional research is necessary to develop effective measures and program to prevent and reduce conflict and stress in the work environment of dental hygienists.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists* ; Humans ; Methods ; Qualitative Research*