1Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Pusan National University, Yansan, 50612, Korea
2Department Dental Hygiene, Baekseok University, Cheonan, 31065, Korea
3Department of Dental Hygiene, Dongseo University, Busan, 47011, Korea
The aim of this study was to investigate the perception level of dental hygienists by health (HRC) and non-health related college (NHRC) students. The data collection was conducted using the questionnaire tool in the web for HRC and NHRC students. The data were analyzed by frequency and x²-test using SPSS statistical program to verify the significance. There were 62.6% for NHRC students and 37.6% were HRC students. As a result of the perception of dental hygienists t, 94% of HRC students knew dental hygienists and their main task is prevention of dental hygiene. However, 74.1% of NHRC students knew them and their main task is dental assistant work (p<0.05). The preferred external image of dental hygienist were responded as 50.7% for ‘neat image’ in HRC students, and 50.0% for ‘bright facial expression’ in NHRC students, but there was no statistically significant difference. In the important qualification that a dental hygienists should have internally was answered as ‘expertise’ by both HRC and NHRC students. Our findings suggest to provide efficient and better medical services for patients and to establish for recognizing dental hygienists properly, and the legal institutional arrangements, administrative support and diverse efforts are needed.
Perception level of dental hygienist, prevention of dental hygiene
