scholarly journals Oral health academics’ conceptualisation of health promotion and perceived barriers and opportunities in dental practice: a qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Bracksley-O’Grady ◽  
Karen Anderson ◽  
Mohd Masood

Abstract Background Oral diseases place a significant burden on individual and population health. These diseases are largely preventable; health promotion initiatives have been shown to decrease the disease rates. However, there is limited implementation of health promotion in dentistry, this could be due to a number of factors; the ethos and philosophy of dentistry is focused on a curative, individualised approach to oral diseases, confusion around health promotion as a concept. Oral health academics are well placed to implement health promotion, training of these professionals needs to include prevention, as training influences dental practice. However, there is a little understanding about how oral health academics (dental professionals who educate dental and oral health students) view health promotion. The aim of this exploratory study is to understand how oral health academics conceptualise health promotion and perceive the barriers and possible opportunities for health promotion implementation in dental practice. Methods Nominal group technique (NGT), a highly structured face-to-face meeting, was conducted with 24 oral health academics to explore how they conceptualize health promotion and the barriers and opportunities for health promotion in practice. An additional 4 questions were emailed to oral health educators after the NGT meeting to gather additional data, 6 oral health academics were involved. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Three board themes were identified: “Knowledge, ideas and concepts of health promotion”, “Challenges to health promotion”, “Opportunities for health promotion practice”. The oral health academics in this study discussed health promotion in a holistic way, however, health education and behaviour change were mentioned more than other aspects of health promotion. The structure of dental practice specifically the curative approach that underpins dentistry and the lack of funding, and value placed on health promotion could act as a challenge to health promotion being implemented in practice. There has been a shift towards prevention in dentistry, however the participants acknowledge there needs to be a change in the curative culture of the profession. Collaboration with other health professionals and using a common risk factor approach were the identified opportunities for health promotion practice. Conclusions Oral health academics have a holistic understanding of health promotion, but still focus more on behavioural approaches which is common within dentistry. For a change to occur in health promotion practice a change in the structure, curative approach and funding model of dentistry is required. Collaboration with other health professionals is an opportunity to be capitalised on. Training of future dental professionals is the perfect place to start to implement the changes and opportunities for health promotion presented in this paper.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Bracksley-O'Grady ◽  
Karen Anderson ◽  
Mohd Masood

Abstract Oral diseases, place a significant burden on individual and population health. These diseases are largely preventable; health promotion initiatives have been shown to decrease the disease rates. However, there is limited implementation of health promotion in dentistry, this could be due to a number of factors; the ethos and philosophy of dentistry is focused on a curative, individualised approach to oral diseases, confusion around health promotion as a concept. Oral health academics are well placed to implement health promotion, training of these professionals needs to include prevention, as training influences dental practice. However, there is a little understanding about how oral health academics (dental professionals who educate dental and oral health students) view health promotion. The aim of this study is to understand how oral health academics conceptualise health promotion and perceive the barriers and possible opportunities for health promotion implementation in dental practice. Methods: Nominal group technique (NGT), a highly structured face-to-face meeting, was conducted with 24 oral health academics to explore how they conceptualize health promotion and the barriers and opportunities for health promotion in practice. An additional 4 questions were emailed to oral health educators after the NGT meeting to gather additional data, 6 oral health academics were involved. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Four board themes were identified: “health education”; “structure of dental practice”; “work in progress”; “collaboration”. The oral health academics in this study discussed health promotion in a holistic way, however, health education and behaviour change were mentioned more than other aspects of health promotion. The structure of dental practice specifically the curative approach that underpins dentistry and the lack of funding, and value placed on health promotion could act as a barrier to health promotion being implemented in practice. There has been a shift towards prevention in dentistry, however the participants acknowledge there needs to be a change in the curative culture of the profession. Collaboration with other health professionals and using a common risk factor approach were the identified opportunities for health promotion practice. Conclusions: Oral health academics have a holistic understanding of health promotion, but still focus more on behavioural approaches which is common within dentistry. For a change to occur in health promotion practice a change in the structure, curative approach and funding model of dentistry is required. Collaboration with other health professionals is an opportunity to be capitalised on. Training of future dental professionals is the perfect place to start to implement the changes and opportunities for health promotion presented in this paper.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Bracksley-O'Grady ◽  
Karen Anderson ◽  
Mohd Masood

Abstract Background: Dental diseases, dental caries and periodontal disease, place a significant burden on individual and population health level. These diseases are largely preventable; health promotion initiatives have been shown to decrease the disease rates. However, there is limited implementation of health promotion in dentistry, this could be due to a number of factors, the ethos and philosophy of dentistry is focused on a curative, individualised approach to oral diseases, there is confusion around health promotion as a concept. However, dental professionals are well placed to implement health promotion, but there is a lack of understanding about the training and what dental professionals understand about health promotion.The aim was to explore conceptualization of health promotion among oral health educators and identifying the barriers and opportunities for health promotion in practiceMethods: Nominal group technique (NGT), a highly structured face-to-face meeting, was conducted with 24 oral health educators to explore how they conceptualize health promotion and the barriers and opportunities for health promotion in practice. An additional 4 questions were emailed to oral health educators after the NGT to gather additional data, 6 oral health educators were involved. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis.Results: The oral health educators in this study discussed health promotion in a holistic way, however, health education and behaviour change were mentioned more than other aspects of health promotion. Collaboration with other health professionals and getting involved in already existing health promotion programs were the identified opportunities for health promotion practice. However, the barriers of health promotion practice were identified as the curative approach that underpins dentistry and the lack of funding, time and value placed on health promotion.Conclusions: This study moves beyond a problem describing to problem solving in this space. Collaboration with other health professionals is an opportunity to be capitalised on. However, to see the biggest improvement in health promotion the curative, individualised approach to dentistry needs to be challenged.


2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (suppl) ◽  
pp. 279-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andréa Gonçalves Antonio ◽  
Lucianne Cople Maia ◽  
Roberto Braga de Carvalho Vianna ◽  
Luís Eduardo Lavigne Paranhos Quintanilha

The biofilm control is a considerable factor in the prevention and treatment of oral diseases as caries and periodontal disease. However, according to the literature, the collective programs show frustrating results at long-term due to difficulty to change the behavior of the participant individuals. Therefore, taking into consideration the model of the dental practice in Brazil, where the population has an oral health needfulness, the purpose of this study is to introduce different strategies that allow the accomplishment of collective programs, so that they succeed in the promotion of the oral health either in individual or collective level.


2020 ◽  

Background: The relationship between oral health and general health is gaining interest in geriatric research; however, a lack of studies dealing with this issue from a general perspective makes it somewhat inaccessible to non-clinical public health professionals. Purpose: The purpose of this review is to describe the relationship between oral health and general health of the elderly on the basis of literature review, and to give non-clinical medical professionals and public health professionals an overview of this discipline. Methods: This study was based on an in-depth review of the literature pertaining to the relationship between oral health and general health among the older people. The tools commonly used to evaluate dental health and the academic researches of male elderly people were also reviewed. And future research directions were summarized. Results: Dental caries, periodontal disease, edentulism, and xerostomia are common oral diseases among the older people. Dental caries and periodontal diseases are the leading causes of missing teeth and edentulism. Xerostomia, similar to dry mouth, is another common oral health disease in the older people. No clear correlation exists between the subjective feeling of dryness and an objective decrease of saliva. Rather, both conditions can be explained by changes in saliva. The General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI) and the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) are the main assessment tools used to examine oral health and quality of life in the older people. The GOHAI tends to be more sensitive to objective values pertaining to oral function. In addition, oral health studies in male elderly people are population-based cohort or cross-sectional studies, involving masticatory function, oral prevention, frailty problems, cardiovascular disease risk, and cognitive status. Conclusion: It is possible to reduce the incidence of certain oral diseases, even among individuals who take oral health care seriously. Oral health care should be based on the viewpoint of comprehensive treatment, including adequate nutrition, good life and psychology, and correct oral health care methods. In the future, researchers could combine the results of meta-analysis with the clinical experience of doctors to provide a more in-depth and broader discussion on oral health research topics concerning the older people.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roisin McGrath ◽  
Rodrigo Marino ◽  
Julie Satur

Abstract Background This study explored the oral health promotion practices of Australian community mental health professionals working with people living with severe mental illness (SMI). Methods An anonymous cross-sectional web-based survey was distributed to all Community Rehabilitation and Support Workers (CRSWs) working at Neami National (n = 471), an Australian community mental health service. The validated questionnaire assessed participants’ self-rated oral health knowledge and confidence (7 questions); their perceived barriers (9 questions) and attitudes (5 questions) to oral health promotion; and their oral health promotion practices (7 questions). Differences in responses between groups were analysed using Chi-square, Fisher’s exact and Mann–Whitney U tests. Logistic Regression Analysis served to explore the probability of providing oral health support to mental health consumers. Results A total of 141 CRSWs were included in this study, achieving a response rate of 30 percent. Roughly two-fifths (39.0%) of participants had oral health training in the previous 12-months. The majority of CRSWs (89.3%) believed (‘Agreed’ or ‘Strongly agreed’) that mental health support workers have a role to play in promoting oral health. However, less than half (44.0%) of CRSWs practiced oral health promotion activities when working with mental health consumers. When asked about barriers to promoting oral health, ‘lack of consumer interest’ was the most prevalent issue. CRSWs who had oral health training were over three-times (OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.25–9.83, p = 0.017) more likely to provide oral health support. Results showed the provision of oral health support was most strongly associated with self-rated knowledge and confidence (OR 4.089, 95% CI 1.629–10.263, p = 0.003) and attitudes to oral health promotion (OR 3.906, 95% CI 1.77–8.65, p = 0.001). Conclusion The results of this study suggest that mental health support workers who have more positive attitudes to oral health promotion and who have higher self-rated oral health knowledge and confidence are more likely to provide oral health support in their professional role. Training for community mental health professionals is essential to build confidence and skills to promote oral health for mental health consumers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 154-156
Author(s):  
Valerie Wordley ◽  
Raman Bedi

With oral diseases affecting people of all ages in every country of the world, new approaches are necessary to remove inequalities in oral health and increase access to oral health education. With over 1 billion children attending school, developing dental leadership skills not only in dental professionals but also in schoolteachers will help to spread oral health prevention messages effectively, implement healthy habits at a young age and impact a greater proportion of the global population to improve their oral health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henckell Sime Clara Luisa del Carmen

The current state of pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, commonly called the “new coronavirus” that causes the CoVID-19 disease, has generated a great impact in the dental field, since the characteristics that it possesses condition a permanent state of alert by health professionals due to its high transmissibility of positive patients, even asymptomatic, or in the recovery phase, which makes it highly contagious; Thanks to a precarious health system, high rates of mortality and contagion have been revealed; That is why the present research aims to determine the repercussions of the CoVID-19 disease in stomatologists during dental practice; A search was carried out in the databases of the USS campus and academic google and 21 scientific articles were chosen under the inclusion criteria that evidence studies on CoVID-19, in Spanish and English; excluding those who did not contribute to the investigation, nor did they maintain the relationship with CoVID-19 and dentistry, through the technique of documentary analysis; All the information was collected in collection sheets whose criteria were summary and results; Within the last ones, it was evidenced that dentistry practice has been mainly affected by the present virus, because its transmission route is through the conjunctival, nasal and oral mucosa, the purpose of the dentist being to preserve oral health at the mucosal level present in the oral cavity; Likewise, another point that generates high contagion potential is dental instruments, which cause droplets of saliva to be produced, or even blood; It concludes with the call to raise awareness of the degree of virus contagion exposure to which the stomatologist is exposed.


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