OBJECTIVE:

The aims of this study were to investigate whether dental and dental hygiene students' career plans postgraduation were affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to examine wellness and readiness for clinical practice among students who reported a change in career plans.

METHODS:

An anonymous online REDCap survey was developed and emailed to 436 dental and dental hygiene students at a US dental school. The survey consisted of 81 questions that covered demographics, career plans postgraduation, and readiness and wellness measures. An open-ended question assessing how students' career plans have changed during the pandemic was also included.

RESULTS:

A total of 252 students completed the survey, of whom 11.5% reported that their plans for future dental practice have changed since the COVID-19 outbreak. Students who reported a change to their career plans had significantly higher mean perceived stress (20.1 vs. 16.3; P = 0.003) and anxiety (9.2 vs. 6.2; P = 0.004) scores and lower mean resilience (18.9 vs. 20.9; P = 0.01) scores than those who reported no change to their career plans. Concerns were raised regarding the limited employment opportunities, long-term stability of the dental profession, and the interruptions to clinical education and licensure examinations consequent to the pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS:

A comprehensive effort inclusive of adeptly designed clinical and curriculum experiences paired with wellness interventions and support tailored to students is needed. These measures need to support trainees across varying years in training and resilience levels to be effective for dental and dental hygiene students as they approach their future career intentions in the dental profession. Additional longitudinal research is needed to assess if change in career intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic corresponds with actual change postpandemic and affects the dental profession.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER STATEMENT:

This study explores the potential short-term change in career intentions of dental hygiene and dental students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings can inform workforce planning as well as interventions developed and implemented by academic dental institutions to support student wellness during unexpected and prolonged emergency situations.

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders are shown to have poor periodontal health and dental hygiene habits. Extensive research has revealed that parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently encounter heightened levels of stress, despair, and anxiety in comparison to parents of neurotypical children. The aim was to understand the relationship between the dental hygiene of children with ASD and the stress generated in their parents. Methods: A scoping review was carried out to identify any gaps or research opportunities for clinical practice concerning oral care and stress levels in parents in the PubMed, Medline, ScienceDirect, and Scopus databases. Results: A total of 139 articles were reviewed. Of these, only 10 met the selection criteria for inclusion. Our results reveal a lack of studies presenting evidence on the topic of poor dental hygiene in children with ASD and high stress levels in their parents. Discussion: There is ample evidence that children with ASD have poor dental hygiene, as well as higher levels of stress in their parents. However, little or no evidence links these two variables. Future studies should focus on this link, which could have practical implications for improving dental care for children with ASD.

PURPOSE:

Adoption of portfolio assessment in the educational environment is gaining attention as a means to incorporate self-assessment into the curriculum and to use evidence to support learning outcomes and to demonstrate competency. Portfolios provide a medium for students to demonstrate and document their personal and professional growth across the curriculum. The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the drivers for portfolio education, the benefits to both students and program faculty/administrators, the barriers associated with portfolio use, and suggested solutions that have been determined through several years of "lessons learned." The University of Missouri Kansas City School of Dentistry, Division of Dental Hygiene department has been utilizing portfolio assessment for over 15 years and has collected data related to portfolio performance since 2001. Results from correlational statistics calculated on the 312 dental hygiene students that graduated from 2001 to 2013 demonstrate a positive and significant relationship between portfolio performance and overall GPA as well as portfolio performance and NBDHE scores.

PURPOSE:

Adoption of portfolio assessment in the educational environment is gaining attention as a means to incorporate self-assessment into the curriculum and to use evidence to support learning outcomes and to demonstrate competency. Portfolios provide a medium for students to demonstrate and document their personal and professional growth across the curriculum. The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the drivers for portfolio education, the benefits to both students and program faculty/ administrators, the barriers associated with portfolio use, and suggested solutions that have been determined through several years of “lessons learned.” The University of Missouri Kansas City School of Dentistry, Division of Dental Hygiene department has been utilizing portfolio assessment for over 15 years and has collected data related to portfolio performance since 2001. Results from correlational statistics calculated on the 312 dental hygiene students that graduated from 2001 to 2013 demonstrate a positive and significant relationship between portfolio performance and overall GPA as well as portfolio performance and NBDHE scores.

OBJECTIVE:

Due to the widespread availability of online information, oral care providers are no longer the main source of oral health information for clients. This shift in the balance of knowledge has the potential to alter clients' experiences and relationships with their oral care providers, including dental hygienists. This review explores how access to online health information has influenced clients' experiences with their dental hygienists.

METHOD:

A narrative literature review of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed,method studies concerning clients' experiences with online health information and how it has influenced the client-health care professional relationship was completed. The electronic databases searched were Google ScholarTM, PubMed, and CINAHL. Twenty-three studies published between 2005 and 2020 were included.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

The majority of clients used the internet to access health information to be better informed about health issues. Both clients and health care providers had concerns about the legitimacy and accuracy of various online information sources. Clients faced various communication facilitators and barriers when discussing this information with their health care provider. A positive response by the health care provider led to an improved client-clinician relationship, whereas a negative response led to distrust among all parties. Clients would be open to e-health literacy training by their dental hygienists.

CONCLUSION:

Clients' access to online health information can either improve or worsen their experiences and relationships with their dental hygienists, depending on the response by the dental hygienist when these topics are broached. Dental hygienists should consider taking time to provide e-health literacy training to clients during consultations.

PURPOSE:

Dental hygienists have been found to have high rates of neck and shoulder disorders, but there is very limited information on risk factors associated with those disorders, the level of risk for students, and the relationship of prior work as dental assistants for dental hygiene students. This study examines self-reported and physician-diagnosed neck and shoulder pain.

METHODS:

A cohort consisting of 27 dental hygiene students with no prior dental occupation experience (mean age 24, 6.2 SD), and 39 dental hygiene students with prior experience as dental assistants (mean age 28, 6.0) and 94 experienced dental hygienists (mean age 46, 8.8) completed a questionnaire on risk factors and self reported pain, and were examined by a physician in reference to upper extremity findings and diagnoses. Analysis included tabular, trend, and logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS:

There were significant differences for risks, symptoms, and physician findings. Risk factors had a stepwise progression for students, student/assistants, and experienced dental hygienists, including working with a bent neck often or very often (79%, 89%, 96%, respectively, p<.001), static posture (39%, 50%, 63%, p<.001), precise motions (58%, 67%, 90%, p<.001), and repetition (79%, 86%, 98%, p<.001). Neck symptoms were reported by 37%, 43%, and 72%, respectively (p<.001), and 11%, 20%, and 35% for shoulder symptoms (p<.05). Similar patterns were demonstrated in physician findings, particularly for neck disorders (18%, 36%, 50%, p<.01). In regressions, self-reported shoulder pain was significantly associated with working above shoulder height (OR=1.5, CI 1.0-2.4), and neck symptoms with working with a bent neck (OR=2.1, CI 1.3-3.4), with a protective effect from high supervisor support (OR=0.5, CI 0.2-1.0).

CONCLUSION:

Risk factors and both self-reported and physician-diagnosed neck and shoulder symptoms increase in frequency from students to experienced hygienists, and students have higher prevalence if they are also dental assistants.

Early detection of childhood caries is important to childrens' overall health. Untreated childhood caries can lead to pain, as in abscesses from prolonged neglect; altered dietary intake; and delays in the development of the permanent teeth if the primary teeth are prematurely lost. In the summer of 2000, funds were provided to various oral health care provider organizations by the Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Oral Health, to purchase portable equipment to deliver preventive services (i.e., exams, sealants, and oral hygiene education) to second-grade and sixth-grade children who qualified for Medicaid and/or free and reduced-cost lunch programs. The Dental Sealant Grant Program at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale was a unique program that utilized dental hygiene students as the primary human resource. Within the state, the Dental Sealant Grant Program was, at the time of this report, the only grantee sponsored by a stand-alone dental hygiene program (not affiliated with a dental school). Other positive aspects of the dental hygiene-sponsored sealant program were that the supervising dentist was the primary Medicaid provider and a member of the dental hygiene faculty; dental hygiene faculty participated actively as site coordinators and clinicians; and dental hygiene students were given the opportunity to volunteer for the program as a service-learning option.

This study was designed to test the effectiveness of a smokeless tobacco (ST) intervention delivered in the oral healthcare office setting. A total of 518 male ST users were identified by questionnaire in clinic waiting rooms and then randomly assigned to either a usual-care control group or a special intervention group. Dental hygienists took the primary role in delivering the intervention, which consisted of a soft-tissue examination with special attention to oral lesions, advice to quit ST, distribution of self-help materials, a short video on why and how to stop using smokeless tobacco, and encouragement to set a quit date. Follow-up assessments conducted three months after the office visit showed that a significantly greater proportion of intervention group patients had stopped using ST (32% of the intervention group participants versus 21% of control group patients, kappa 2 = 8.03, p less than .01). The intervention protocol is described in detail so that dental hygienists may adapt it for use in their practice.

Infection control in dental radiographic procedures in US dental hygiene programmes has been investigated by means of a questionnaire and 76% (n = 148) responded. For intra-oral radiography, all but two programmes required the use of gloves during exposure procedures and 94% also required them during processing. Glasses, masks and other protective clothing were required less frequently than gloves. Equipment and working surfaces in the radiographic operatory were generally either disinfected or draped. Equipment and working surfaces in the darkroom were not usually afforded the same degree of diligence in disinfection. Most programmes dried film packets before processing and gave no special treatment to films after processing. Waste products were generally either tied off and marked as a biohazard or sterilized.

PURPOSE:

Patients with HIV/AIDS deserve to be treated with compassion and receive comprehensive care by their dentist and dental hygienists. Previous studies have shown that many dental and dental hygiene students had negative attitudes towards treating such individuals. This article addresses the effectiveness of a program that trains dental hygiene students in the issues of treating this population. All pre-doctoral students at the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry are required to receive this training. Dental hygiene students complete a pre-session survey during their first year and a post-session survey as they complete the training during their second year. The survey questionnaire was administered during the period of 2003 to 2009, during which 197 students completed responses to the post-session survey. Five questions in the survey address self-evaluation of knowledge, attitudes, confidence in the efficacy of Universal Precautions and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) following blood borne exposures. This study reports on 5 overlapping 2 year testing cycles and shows significant shifts in all 5 areas surveyed. The most significant gains were in "Familiarity with PEP" and "Confidence in the Efficacy of PEP." These data support the usefulness of an HIV program in preparing future dental hygienists to deliver appropriate care to persons living with HIV/AIDS.