Chapter 1
- Peruse the internet for information on the history of dental hygiene and dentistry. Develop a time line of historical events impacting our professions.
- Take a virtual tour of the National Museum of Dentistry at http://www.dentalmuseum.umaryland.edu/
- Navigate the ADHA website. See all of the data and materials ADHA has developed to help promote the dental hygiene profession.
- Always keep an eye out for new preventive therapies with promise such as fluoride varnish, total wellness approach to dental care delivery, xylitol and prevora. Remember to always check for articles published in peer-reviewed publications.
Chapter 2
- Become involved in local community endeavors. This will aid in your understanding of local and state government organizations.
- Read the newspaper articles pertaining to health care delivery in your region and the US.
Chapter 3
- Read your own insurance company policy book – both medical and dental. Reading this in conjunction with utilizing your insurance will aid in understanding these complex systems.
Chapter 4
- Peruse the internet for information on the practice of dental hygiene in your ancestors’ countries. Learn about the history of dental hygiene or its absence in these countries.
Chapter 5
- Become involved in your state dental hygiene association and attend dental board meetings and dental testimonial hearings with the legislators.
Chapter 6
- Look at different health care models utilized by the health care industry, insurance companies, food industry via magazines and advertising, promotion, health care workers, teachers, etc.
Chapter 7
- Utilizing the framework of the cultural diversity table, trace and define your ancestral roots. Notice some similarities and differences that define you – which is true of all individuals.
Chapter 8
- Devise a table of your favorite and least favorite teachers and their characteristics and teaching styles. Now, before presenting to a group on dental health, decide on the characteristics and teaching styles you found most useful.
Chapter 9
- Visit a dental public health program in your area and think of all the parts of the dental hygiene program planning paradigm. Look at the positive and negative decisions of the actual program operation.
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
- Listen to television news reports and read newspaper articles on studies conduction to see the “latest” findings on health and disease which are reported and often times contraindicated daily.
Chapter 12
- List at least three purposes of dental hygiene research and defend the fact that research is vital to the practice of dental hygiene.
- Identify the dependent and independent variables in each problem statement. And then make up your own problem statements and choose the variables.
- When used in conjunction with oral hygiene education, is disclosing solution an effective adjunct for motivating patients toward improved oral hygiene habits?
- Disclosing solution = I.V.
- Improved oral hygiene habits = D.V.
- Is there a significant reduction in the amount of plaque when a gingivitis reduction mouthrinse is used as an adjunct to normal oral hygiene practice?
- Gingivitis reduction mouthrinse= I.V.
- Amount of plaque = D.V.
- What is the relationship between previous dental assisting experience and clinical achievement of dental hygiene students?
- Previous dental assisting = I.V.
- Clinical achievement = D.V.
Design a research study for these following case scenarios:
- In any professional curriculum, attention is given to the effectiveness of the acquisition of knowledge and accompanying skills. To ensure that the knowledge and skills have been mastered, evaluation methods must be used. Evaluation serves as a means of giving a student feedback, allowing them to consider whether or not they would need to change their methods or not. In dental hygiene education, evaluation of clinical performance is an important and time consuming aspect of becoming proficient in dental hygiene clinical skills.
Problem:
Research Design:
Case Senario:
- Researchers estimate that patients’ ability to effectively remove plaque while brushing remains relatively low despite the patients’ brushing techniques. The literature suggests that perhaps the actual process of brushing the oral cavity is unpleasant to the patients. Therefore, if the experience of brushing provided increased pleasure, such as listening to music, perhaps the patient would exhibit improved oral hygiene.
Problem Statement:
Research Design:
Chapter 13
Case Scenario
-
The oral health needs of the long-term care patients previously have been the concern of the hospital staff. Dental care is not easily available due to the lack of dental facilities in the hospitals. The oral health care that the long-term care patient receives is limited to daily oral health, either performed by the patient or by a member of the hospital staff. A dental health educational program could be implemented as a preventive measure to protect the long term care patients from more serious dental problems and possible medical completions.
Problem Statement:
Research Design:
Answers:
#1
Problem Statement: Is there a statistically significant relationship between dental hygiene students’ self concept and their final clinical grades based solely upon their clinical performance?
Research Design: Correlational approach
#2
Problem Statement: Does performing brushing to music improve patients’ oral heath status?
Research Design: Two-group randomized pretest-posttest design.
#3
Problem Statement: Can a dental health educational program improve the oral health status of long-term care patients?
Research Design: Nonrandomized two-group pretest-posttest
Now develop your own studies.
- Construct from a suitable set of raw data that you create, the following table and charts: frequency table, histogram, frequency polygon and cumulative frequency distributions.
- What is the mean, median and mode for the following: 3,4,6,6,7,8,9
- What is the range, variance and standard deviation for 3,4,6,6,7,8,9.
Chapter 14
- Visit your local drug/grocery store and peruse the dental care products isle. Determine new products and closely look at advertising, packaging and pricing. Then look into the research on the product in the library or on the internet.
- Peruse the internet for promising new dental hygiene treatment modalities and dental care products. Work to stay current so that you will be able to advocate all aspects of evidenced-base dental hygiene care with your patients.
- When locating a particularly interesting article, write up an abstract on the article and work with a faculty member on submitting to the Journal of Dental Hygiene.
Chapter 15
- Peruse the Internet for governmental opportunities for the dental hygienist.
- Visit local public health dental clinics and find out about the dental hygienist employment variations.
- Discuss the COSTEP program with a local USPHS Officer or go to the USPHS website http://www.usphs.gov and email them questions you may have.
Chapter 16
- Visit your local heart hospitals, diabetes centers, hospice centers, home health care entities, etc. Discuss the role of the dental hygienist in these fields and work to increase opportunities for dental hygienists in these organizations.
- Attend local dental hygiene meetings and find out where the dental hygienists in your community are practicing.
- Spend a day with a dental hygienist working in a setting other than private dentist office.
Chapter 17
- Study in groups and with a partner for boards during your senior year.
- Organize your notes from dental hygiene courses and prerequisite courses for easy studying.
- Peruse the Internet for board review book.
- Practice the board review questions in Dental Public Health: Contemporary Practice of the Dental Hygienist and on the website.
- GOOD LUCK!
