Background: This study aimed to analyze trends in qualitative research within the field of dental hygiene, focusing on paperspublished in Korean journals from 2000 to 2023. As dental hygienists play a crucial role in preventive oral health, understanding the breadth and depth of qualitative research in this field is essential for advancing practice and education. Methods: This descriptive survey research study analyzed 23 qualitative studies using the Consolidated Criteria for ReportingQualitative Research (COREQ) as a framework. Studies were selected through a comprehensive search of Korean databases. The analysis covered research topics, participant types, methodological approaches, and adherence to COREQ domains, including“Research Team and Reflexivity,” “Study Design,” and “Analysis and Findings.” Results: The analysis revealed that most studies employed a phenomenological methodology (36.4%). Additionally, 87.0% of thestudies mentioned Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and only 8.7% utilized qualitative data analysis software. The studies primarily focused on oral care for the elderly, communication, and the experiences of dental hygienists. Furthermore, 95.7% of the studies included participant quotations, but only 56.5% checked data saturation. Conclusion This study highlights the need for a more diverse methodological approach in dental hygiene research. Journalsshould also emphasize strict adherence to IRB guidelines and encourage the use of qualitative data analysis software to enhance the rigor of research. By strengthening the systematic foundation of qualitative research in dental hygiene, the field can better address clinical challenges and expand the understanding of dental hygienists’ work environments.

Background: This study aimed to identify the present level and needs of clinical dental hygienists and to present the Borich needsassessment and the locus for focus model as integrated priorities. Methods: The participants of this study were dental hygienists working in dental clinics (hospitals). The final data of the 194 participants were analyzed using frequency analysis and a paired sample t-test. To analyze the need for clinical dental hygienists to perform work, the Borich priority determination formula was used. The x-y plane consisting of four quadrants was used to analyze the need using the locus for focus model, which helps to determine the priority while showing visual effects. Results: “Scaling” was the highest required level for clinical dental hygienists, and “panorama taking” was the highest present level.The priorities of educational needs were systematically and visually derived from dental hygienists who were currently working through the Borich needs assessment and the locus for focus model for each task performed in the clinical field. Through the priorities of these two models, a total of 13 items appeared in the common high-level area; “oral health care (disability),” “oral health care (systemic disease),” “applying a rubber dam,” “professional mechanical tooth cleaning,” “root planing,” “taking vital signs,” “medication counseling,” “wire cutting,” “removing cement after removing band/bracket,” “delivering bracket,” “preparing mini-screw implantation,” “dental insurance claim,” and “patient reception.” Conclusion Based on the results, the department of dental hygiene should maintain and improve the standardized clinical practice curriculum and clinical dental hygienists’ practical skills and contribute to the realization of the legal scope of dental hygienists, reflecting the requirements of clinical fields.

Background: Dental hygienists, who play a vital role in promoting oral health, experience burnout due to various factors. This study aimed to identify these factors through a scoping review of the literature on burnout among dental hygienists in Korea to develop prevention and intervention strategies for burnout. Methods: The literature review was conducted following a scoping review protocol, which included five stages: identifying the literature question, identifying relevant studies, study selection, charting the data, summarizing, and reporting the results. Of the 352 documents initially reviewed, 35 were ultimately selected as final studies. These documents were analyzed to identify general characteristics and key variables related to burnout and to review the recommendations made by the studies. Results: Analysis of the final documents revealed that most studies published between 2013 and 2018 involved sample sizes ranging from 201 to 300 participants. Burnout-related characteristics include age, salary, work experience, and marital status. Emotional labor was the key variable most frequently identified, followed by intention to leave, job stress, job satisfaction, job involvement, and self-efficacy. Conclusion This study suggests that strategies for preventing and intervening in burnout should be developed through both personal efforts and institutional measures. This approach will improve the work environment for dental hygienists and, consequently, enhance the quality of dental healthcare services.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the effects of department satisfaction and career maturity on the perceived health status, relationship, and self-efficacy of dental hygiene college students based on Alderfer’s existence-relationship-growth theory. Methods: We obtained convenience samples of dental hygiene students in Daejeon and Chungnam areas; 241 questionnaires were collected from 250 persons considering the dropout rate and used for the final analysis except for 9 careless responses. The differences in perceived health status, relationship, self-efficacy, department satisfaction, and career maturity according to general characteristics were analyzed using a t-test, one-way analysis of variance and Pearson’s correlation coefficients. Moreover, structural equation modeling was performed to confirm the variables. GFI, AGFI,CFI, RMR, RMSEA, TLI, and NFI indices were calculated to verify the fitness of the path model. Results: There were significant differences in self-efficacy, department satisfaction, career maturity according to grade, and significant differences in academic performance for all variables except relationship. The school system also had a significant effect on department satisfaction. Perceived health status, relationship, self-efficacy, department satisfaction, and career maturity demonstrated statistically significant positive correlations (p＜0.05). The factors affecting department satisfaction were relationship and self-efficacy. The indirect and total effects of perceived health status and relationship on career maturity were not statistically significant; however, the indirect and total effects of self-efficacy on career maturity were statistically significant. Conclusion It is necessary to develop teaching methods according to student management plans for dental hygiene by comprehensively perceived health status, relationship, and self-efficacy affecting department satisfaction and career maturity.

Background: This study aimed to analyze trends in qualitative research within the field of dental hygiene, focusing on paperspublished in Korean journals from 2000 to 2023. As dental hygienists play a crucial role in preventive oral health, understanding the breadth and depth of qualitative research in this field is essential for advancing practice and education. Methods: This descriptive survey research study analyzed 23 qualitative studies using the Consolidated Criteria for ReportingQualitative Research (COREQ) as a framework. Studies were selected through a comprehensive search of Korean databases. The analysis covered research topics, participant types, methodological approaches, and adherence to COREQ domains, including“Research Team and Reflexivity,” “Study Design,” and “Analysis and Findings.” Results: The analysis revealed that most studies employed a phenomenological methodology (36.4%). Additionally, 87.0% of thestudies mentioned Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and only 8.7% utilized qualitative data analysis software. The studies primarily focused on oral care for the elderly, communication, and the experiences of dental hygienists. Furthermore, 95.7% of the studies included participant quotations, but only 56.5% checked data saturation. Conclusion This study highlights the need for a more diverse methodological approach in dental hygiene research. Journalsshould also emphasize strict adherence to IRB guidelines and encourage the use of qualitative data analysis software to enhance the rigor of research. By strengthening the systematic foundation of qualitative research in dental hygiene, the field can better address clinical challenges and expand the understanding of dental hygienists’ work environments.

Background: This study aimed to analyze trends in qualitative research within the field of dental hygiene, focusing on paperspublished in Korean journals from 2000 to 2023. As dental hygienists play a crucial role in preventive oral health, understanding the breadth and depth of qualitative research in this field is essential for advancing practice and education. Methods: This descriptive survey research study analyzed 23 qualitative studies using the Consolidated Criteria for ReportingQualitative Research (COREQ) as a framework. Studies were selected through a comprehensive search of Korean databases. The analysis covered research topics, participant types, methodological approaches, and adherence to COREQ domains, including“Research Team and Reflexivity,” “Study Design,” and “Analysis and Findings.” Results: The analysis revealed that most studies employed a phenomenological methodology (36.4%). Additionally, 87.0% of thestudies mentioned Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and only 8.7% utilized qualitative data analysis software. The studies primarily focused on oral care for the elderly, communication, and the experiences of dental hygienists. Furthermore, 95.7% of the studies included participant quotations, but only 56.5% checked data saturation. Conclusion This study highlights the need for a more diverse methodological approach in dental hygiene research. Journalsshould also emphasize strict adherence to IRB guidelines and encourage the use of qualitative data analysis software to enhance the rigor of research. By strengthening the systematic foundation of qualitative research in dental hygiene, the field can better address clinical challenges and expand the understanding of dental hygienists’ work environments.

Background: This study aimed to analyze trends in qualitative research within the field of dental hygiene, focusing on paperspublished in Korean journals from 2000 to 2023. As dental hygienists play a crucial role in preventive oral health, understanding the breadth and depth of qualitative research in this field is essential for advancing practice and education. Methods: This descriptive survey research study analyzed 23 qualitative studies using the Consolidated Criteria for ReportingQualitative Research (COREQ) as a framework. Studies were selected through a comprehensive search of Korean databases. The analysis covered research topics, participant types, methodological approaches, and adherence to COREQ domains, including“Research Team and Reflexivity,” “Study Design,” and “Analysis and Findings.” Results: The analysis revealed that most studies employed a phenomenological methodology (36.4%). Additionally, 87.0% of thestudies mentioned Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and only 8.7% utilized qualitative data analysis software. The studies primarily focused on oral care for the elderly, communication, and the experiences of dental hygienists. Furthermore, 95.7% of the studies included participant quotations, but only 56.5% checked data saturation. Conclusion This study highlights the need for a more diverse methodological approach in dental hygiene research. Journalsshould also emphasize strict adherence to IRB guidelines and encourage the use of qualitative data analysis software to enhance the rigor of research. By strengthening the systematic foundation of qualitative research in dental hygiene, the field can better address clinical challenges and expand the understanding of dental hygienists’ work environments.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between anger expression and self-esteem of female college students of dental hygiene. Participants were 598 female students who majored in dental hygiene from randomly selected colleges, located in Daejeon and Chungcheongbuk-do. Data were gathered from May 20 to June 5, 2014, using structured questionnaires. The major findings of the study were as follows: the correlation between anger expression and self-esteem was analyzed, and self-esteem was found to have a weak significant negative correlation with anger expression. On analyzing data to explore which variables affected self-esteem, it was found that self-esteem was influenced by grade, school record, harassment, language–psychological violence, and bullying. The above-mentioned findings suggest that anger expression is related to self-esteem. After graduation from college, dental hygiene students, encounter a variety of interpersonal relationships in their work. Therefore self-esteem programs need to be developed and implemented at an individual, departmental, and collegiate level to help students learn to respect themselves and others, and to provide appropriate care.
Anger* ; Bullying ; Chungcheongbuk-do ; Female ; Humans ; Oral Hygiene* ; Self Concept ; Violence

This study examined 191 pregnant women before delivery in an obstetrics and gynecology clinic in North Gyeongsang Province from May to September 2016 by using a questionnaire after obtaining informed consent for voluntary participation in the study. The study was performed to investigate the association of depression with sociodemographic characteristics, pregnancy-related characteristics, social support, sleep quality and Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) in pregnant women. The prevalence of depression among the pregnant women was 25.1% in the healthy group and 74.9% in the depression group. The depression level was significantly higher in women in the depression group who were unsatisfied with their marriage life, had no occupation, had lower social support, had poor sleep quality and had higher OHIP scores. The results of the logistic regression analysis indicated that, the risk ratio for more severe depression was significantly higher in the group with no experience of miscarriage and induced childbirth than in the group with childbirth experience. Conversely, the risk ratio for more severe depression was significantly lower in the group with high social support than in the group with low social support. Depression in the respondents significantly positively correlated with sleep quality and OHIP score but significantly negatively correlated with social support. The multiple regression analysis revealed that the depression level was significantly higher by 22.3% among pregnant women with lower marital satisfaction, no childbirth experience, lower social support and higher OHIP scores. In summary, depression was related to marital satisfaction, childbirth experience, social support, and OHIP score, among others, in pregnant women in this study. Therefore, further investigation is warranted to construct programs and measures that will help build positive thinking by designing and verifying a three-dimensional study model by taking into consideration various variables to reduce the incidence of depression in pregnant women.
Abortion, Spontaneous ; Depression* ; Female ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Incidence ; Informed Consent ; Logistic Models ; Marriage ; Obstetrics ; Occupations ; Odds Ratio ; Oral Health* ; Parturition ; Pregnancy ; Pregnant Women* ; Prevalence ; Sociological Factors ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Thinking

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.
Commerce ; Counseling ; Crowns ; Curriculum ; Dental Assistants ; Dental Hygienists* ; Dental Implants ; Education* ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Korea ; Licensure ; Oral Health ; Oral Hygiene* ; Radiography