Workforce skill mix: modelling the potential for dental therapists in state-funded primary dental care

Gallagher, Jennifer E.; Lim, Zhenlui; Harper, Paul Robert

doi:10.1111/idj.12006

Cited by 40 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Empirical data shows that Brazilian OHTs from Minas Gerais have spent more time in community actions than in individual clinical care [3]. This is not the reality of dental auxiliaries in other countries [27-29] who have permission to perform clinical procedures even without the supervision of the dentist. They can even set up their own offices and exclusively offer dental hygiene services [2,27-29].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is not the reality of dental auxiliaries in other countries [27-29] who have permission to perform clinical procedures even without the supervision of the dentist. They can even set up their own offices and exclusively offer dental hygiene services [2,27-29]. The socioeconomic and educational characteristics of Brazilian OHTs may be explained by their professional context.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A survey of the sociodemographic and educational characteristics of oral health technicians in public primary health care teams in Minas Gerais, Brazil

et al. 2013

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BackgroundTo describe some sociodemographic and educational characteristics of oral health technicians (OHTs) in public primary health care teams in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.MethodsA cross-sectional descriptive study was performed based on the telephone survey of a representative sample comprising 231 individuals. A pre-tested instrument was used for the data collection, including questions on gender, age in years, years of work as an OHT, years since graduation as an OHT, formal schooling, individual income in a month, and participation in continuing educational programmes. The descriptive statistic was developed and the formation of clusters, by the agglomerative hierarchy technique based on the furthest neighbour, was based on the age, years of work as an OHT, time since graduation as an OHT, formal schooling, individual income in a month, and participation in continuing educational programmes.ResultsMost interviewees (97.1%) were female. A monthly income of USD 300.00 to 600.00 was reported by 77.5% of the sample. Having educational qualifications in excess of their role was reported by approximately 20% of the participants. The median time since graduation was six years, and half of the sample had worked for four years as an OHT. Most interviewees (67.6%) reported having participated in professional continuing educational programmes. Two different clusters were identified based on the sociodemographic and educational characteristics of the sample.ConclusionsThe Brazilian OHTs in public primary health care teams in the state of Minas Gerais are mostly female who have had little time since graduation, working experience, and formal schooling sufficient for professional practice.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A survey of the sociodemographic and educational characteristics of oral health technicians in public primary health care teams in Minas Gerais, Brazil

et al. 2013

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“…A comprehensive dental workforce with appropriate skill mix is one such strategy, which could be adopted to address these issues. [345678] The effective and efficient oral healthcare delivery is influenced by team approach involving dentists and dental auxiliaries. [9]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of dental professionals regarding integration of dental auxiliary into dental health delivery system

Purbay

Kumari²,

Tanwar

et al. 2019

J Family Med Prim Care

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“…A recent review of the literature advocates the importance of needs-led approaches to workforce planning [24], as does the 2030 strategy [1]. Needs-led approaches, whereby the population and epidemiological evidence of their health needs form the basis of the model, have been widely accepted as important [1, 24], and are increasingly successfully being applied in dental workforce planning within the United Kingdom [UK] [25–28]. In these methodologies, needs inform the level of oral care required and then the time necessary to treat each of these conditions is estimated (based on wider research) and the level of HROH required to perform those tasks is derived.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meeting the oral health needs of 12-year-olds in China: human resources for oral health

et al. 2017

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BackgroundAn appropriate level of human resources for oral health [HROH] is required to meet the oral health needs of population, and enable maximum improvement in health outcomes. The aim of this study was to estimate the required HROH to meet the oral health needs of the World Health Organization [WHO] reference group of 12-year-olds in China and consider the implications for education, practice, policy and HROH nationally.MethodsWe estimated the need of HROH to meet the needs of 12-year-olds based on secondary analysis of the epidemiological and questionnaire data from the 3rd Chinese National Oral Health Survey, including caries experience and periodontal factors (calculus), dentally-related behaviour (frequency of toothbrushing and sugar intake), and social factors (parental education). Children’s risk for dental caries was classified in four levels from low (level 1) to high (level 4). We built maximum and minimum intervention models of dental care for each risk level, informed by contemporary evidence-based practice. The needs-led HROH model we used in the present study incorporated need for treatment and risk-based prevention using timings verified by experts in China. These findings were used to estimate HROH for the survey sample, extrapolated to 12-year-olds nationally and the total population, taking account of urban and rural coverage, based on different levels of clinical commitment (60-90%).ResultsWe found that between 40,139 and 51,906 dental professionals were required to deliver care for 12-year-olds nationally based on 80% clinical commitment. We demonstrated that the majority of need for HROH was in the rural population (72.5%). Over 93% of HROH time was dedicated to prevention within the model. Extrapolating the results to the total population, the estimate for HROH nationally was 3.16–4.09 million to achieve national coverage; however, current HROH are only able to serve an estimated 5% of the population with minimum intervention based on a HROH spending 90% of their time in providing clinical care.ConclusionsThe findings highlight the gap between dental workforce needs and workforce capacity in China. Significant implications for health policy and human resources for oral health in this country with a developing health system are discussed including the need for public health action.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4384-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Workforce skill mix: modelling the potential for dental therapists in state-funded primary dental care

Abstract: The findings suggest that dental therapists can play a more significant role in the provision of primary dental care, both currently and in future; they also highlight the need for health services to routinely collect data that can inform workforce analysis and planning.

Cited by 40 publications

References 22 publications

A survey of the sociodemographic and educational characteristics of oral health technicians in public primary health care teams in Minas Gerais, Brazil

A survey of the sociodemographic and educational characteristics of oral health technicians in public primary health care teams in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Perception of dental professionals regarding integration of dental auxiliary into dental health delivery system

Meeting the oral health needs of 12-year-olds in China: human resources for oral health

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