Dental hygiene in Australia: a global perspective

Abstract

The introduction of dental hygiene in Australia was inspired by the delivery of preventive care in Great Britain. Today dental hygiene is a paramedical profession, generally studied at institutions of higher education. Study duration is 2 (diploma and associate degree programmes) and 3 years (Bachelor of Oral Health Programs). A recent trend to combine dental therapy and dental hygiene education poses the challenge to maintain a stand-alone degree in dental hygiene as it is practiced worldwide. Low access to qualified dental hygiene care may be a result of insufficient funding for preventive services, social and cultural lack of awareness of the benefits of preventive care, and of limitations inherent in the legal constraints preventing unsupervised dental hygiene practice. These may be a result of gender politics affecting a female dominated profession and of a perception that dental hygiene is auxiliary to dental care. Changes are expected to reflect the global trend towards a decrease in supervision and towards higher education. An example of innovative practice of public health is the involvement of dental hygienists in the educational process of aboriginal health workers in order to promote access to oral health education for indigenous populations.

The University of Newcastle’s first cohort of Bachelor of Oral Health students: a social profile

“…3 However, the higher percentage of female students undertaking the BOH is not significant within the dental hygiene profession with 97.1% of the dental hygienists employed in Australia in 2003 recorded as female 4 and globally, dental hygiene is recognized as a predominantly female profession. [5][6][7] The trend for future enrolments may see an increase in the number of male students with the introduction of dentistry as a postgraduate degree at the University of Sydney, although dentistry has witnessed an increase in female enrolments both locally and globally. 3 The mean age of the Year 1 dental students in 1994-1995 was 20.1 years 2 and in 2003, 24.6 years 3 while the BOH cohort had a mean age of 26.3 years.…”

Working practices and job satisfaction of Victorian dental hygienists

“…1 Australian hygienists have traditionally focused on the management of periodontal disease as well as the prevention of dental diseases, and their scope of practice has been tightly regulated, with prescription and supervision as key elements of hygiene practice. Recently, dental hygiene education has moved from two-year diploma courses to three-year baccalaureate degrees in many Australian universities, and is now often combined with dental therapy education to produce graduates with qualifications and skills in both of these fields.…”

“…There has been an unprecedented demand for the employment of dental hygienists in recent times in Australia, 1 and there is an expanding body of research highlighting a growing disparity between the demand for dental services and the ability of the current oral health workforce to meet this demand. [2][3][4] This has led to predictions of a shortage of approximately 1500 dental providers by 2010.…”

Assistant staff training in dentistry: A pilot study on dental implants and biomaterials

“…Aynı araştırmacının Slovakya, Avusturalya ve Hong Kong gibi dental hijyenist hizmeti olan ülkelerdeki durumu değerlendirdiği çalışmalarında, Slovakya'da kanıta dayalı yüksek akademik hedeflerin, Hollanda ve İsviçre gibi ülkelerden alınan danışmanlık hizmetinin, yüksek kalitedeki yıllık kongrelerin ve meslek dalının tanınmasının, bu ülkeyi bazı Avrupa Birliği üyesi ve tüm doğu bloğu ülkelerinden daha üst düzeye taşıdığını belirtmiştir. 14,15,16 Ülkemizde 'dental hijyenist' ile benzer eğitim ve sorumluluğa sahip bir meslek grubu yoktur ancak 'ağız ve diş sağlığı teknikerliği' mesleğini icra edecek bireylere yönelik özdeş eğitim modellerinin geliştirilmesi, bu konuda ilerleme kaydetmiş ülkeler ile akademik düzeyde iş birliği yapılması, dental ve periodontal hastalıkların prevalanslarının kaydedilmesi ve dental hijyen hizmetleri ile ilişkilendirilmesi, üzerinde durulması gereken noktalardır. Özdeş bir eğitim programı gören yardımcı personelin, spesifik konularda eğitim modeli ve içeriğini nasıl değerlendirdiği ve bu konularda yapılan sürekli eğitimlere nasıl yaklaştığı da araştırma konusu olmuştur.…”