2023, Vol.23, No.5

Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.8

pISSN : 2287-1705 / eISSN : 2288-2294
https://journal.kci.go.kr/jksdh

Objectives: This study aims to propose a standard protocol for oral health care intervention activities by dental hygienists. Methods: A narrative literature review of home visit oral health care intervention activities reported in Cheonan, South Korea was conducted to enable the proposal of a standard home visit protocol for dental hygienists in the context of community care. Results: Oral health management intervention activities contributed to improving the quality of life, as well as the oral health, of older adults living at home. This was a result of applying a protocol consisting of oral observation, oral massage, expert oral hygiene management, oral muscle function training, and final stages. Conclusions: The visiting oral health intervention protocol was effective in resolving oral health problems of older adults. In the future, customized programs and reimbursement systems should be developed to promote oral health care for older adults that can be provided at home.

Objectives: Water constitutes a majority of the human body and is essential for health. In addition, water intake can prevent dental caries by improving salivary lubrication and self-cleaning. This study aimed to determine the relationship between the amount of daily water intake and the symptoms of oral disease in Korean adolescents. Methods: We used data from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBS), conducted in Korea in 2021, and identified the relationship between daily water intake and oral disease symptoms in Korean adolescents. KYRBS is a nationwide cross-sectional survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), and a total of 54,848 participants were included in this study. Results: After adjusting for confounding factors, logistic regression analysis showed that tooth pain was more often experienced by those who drank less than two cups of water per day (odds ratio [OR]: 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01–1.30) than those who drank five or more cups of water per day. Conclusions: A low daily water intake is associated with tooth pain, a symptom of dental caries. The results of our study suggest that increasing water intake may reduce dental caries. Therefore, adequate water intake may help prevent dental caries.

Objectives: This study is based on a visiting oral health care intervention program in the community care. This qualitative study was conducted through in-depth interviews to identify awareness and attitudes regarding intervention program among older adults. Methods: The research team visited the homes of the target older adults and conducted in-depth interviews for approximately an hour using a semi-structured questionnaire. The collected voice recordings were transcribed using Clova Note, and AI program by Naver. Using the ‘Word Cloud Generator 3.7’ program, words of high importance and interest from interview answers were extracted, visualized, and analyzed. Results: Participating older adults acknowledged that their quality of life related to oral health could be improved by increasing the level of oral health awareness and oral health knowledge through the intervention program. In addition, the older adults indicated that their oral hygiene management ability improved compared to before the intervention through expert oral hygiene management and oral health education. Further, as the level of oral health knowledge increased, so too did satisfaction with the intervention program increase. Conclusions: The intervention program for visiting oral health care showed a positive effect on the awareness and attitude of older adults. Thus, it is suggested that education for continuous competency enhancement of dental hygienists and multidisciplinary education for the improvement of general health and quality of life of older adults should be promoted.