The Opinions of Some Dental Hygienists about Improvement of Korean Dental Hygiene Education

Abstract

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.