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Background: Although a direct association has been established between oral health management and maintaining military combat readiness and fulfilling defense duties, unmet dental-care needs have been consistently reported, and there has been little research on the role of mobile healthcare services in addressing this issue. This study explored the association between unmet dental-care needs and the intention to use mobile healthcare services among military personnel. Methods: This study was conducted on military personnel who visited a military hospital in Gyeonggi-do, Korea, from August 19 to August 31, 2024. A total of 150 self-administered questionnaires were distributed and 135 valid responses were analyzed. The analysis included general characteristics, dental care utilization, and intention to use mobile healthcare services. Statistical analyses, such as t-tests, ANOVA, and multiple regression, were employed to determine the factors influencing the intention to use mobile healthcare services. Results: This study found that military personnel with unmet dental-care needs had significantly higher intentions to use mobile healthcare services than those without such needs. The analysis revealed that the key factors influencing this intention were perceived health status and previous dental-care utilization. Specifically, participants who rated their overall health as better and those who had used dental care services in the past year showed a greater tendency to express interest in mobile healthcare services than those who did not. Furthermore, unmet dental-care needs were more prevalent among soldiers who reported limited access to dental facilities owing to time constraints or a lack of prioritization of oral health, which increased their inclination toward utilizing mobile healthcare solutions as an alternative. Conclusion: Mobile healthcare solutions can offer personalized and timely care as viable alternatives for improving oral health management in the military. Moreover, integrating mobile healthcare services into military health systems could significantly reduce unmet dental-care needs and enhance overall combat readiness by promoting better health outcomes.

Background: This study aimed to investigate whether there is a difference in organizational member attitudes by workplace environment and workplace types in dental hygienists working at dental health centers.Methods: A face-to-face survey or online survey was administered to dental hygienists working at dental health centers, and a total of 95 subjects were included. The survey includes 13 items to ask factors affecting employee’s job satisfaction. Also, some questions were included to assess perception of organizational member attitude: five about organizational citizenship behavior, two about innovative behavior, and four about organizational commitment. Results: Dental hygienists working at dental clinics were more satisfied with their incomes and numbers of working days, while those from dental university hospitals and general hospitals were more satisfied with education support. In addition, hygienists working at dental hospitals were more satisfied with job autonomy, individual work capability, safe working environment, personal relation, potential for personal development, and positive labor-management relations, compared to those working at general and university hospitals (p＜0.05). Among the items about perception of organizational member attitudes, the scores of items about organizational citizenship behaviors were higher, whereas the scores of items about innovative behaviors were relatively lower. Individuals working at dental hospitals than those working at general and university hospitals, chiefs and team and department leaders than team members, and those with increased satisfaction with current workplace had more positive perception of organizational member attitudes. Conclusion: For dental hygienists to have positive attitudes as organizational members, working environment should be improved, and executives of dental healthcare centers should pay attention to improving job satisfaction of organizational members. Moreover, since dental hygienists need to improve their perception of innovative behaviors and citizenship behaviors to strengthen specialty of dental hygienists in a changing dental healthcare, relevant training should be addressed in refresher courses or school programs.

Background Phospholipase C-γ (PLC-γ) plays a crucial role in immune responses and is related to the pathogenesis of various inflammatory disorders. In this study, we investigated the role of PLC-γ and the therapeutic effect of the PLC-specific inhibitor U73122 using orbital fibroblasts from patients with Graves’ orbitopathy (GO). Methods The expression of phospholipase C gamma 1 (PLCG1) and phospholipase C gamma 2 (PLCG2) was evaluated using polymerase chain reaction in GO and normal orbital tissues/fibroblasts. The primary cultures of orbital fibroblasts were treated with non-toxic concentrations of U73122 with or without interleukin (IL)-1β to determine its therapeutic efficacy. The proinflammatory cytokine levels and activation of downstream signaling molecules were determined using Western blotting. Results PLCG1 and PLCG2 mRNA expression was significantly higher in GO orbital tissues than in controls (P

Background: This study aims to investigate the perceptions of dentists and dental hygienists regarding quality dental job conditions and to identify differences in perceptions based on job type. Methods: As a result of conducting face-to-face and online surveys, data from a total of 132 people were analyzed. In order to investigate the perception of quality job conditions, the importance of a total of 13 items was investigated, and the work policies and job satisfaction of the current workplace were examined. Since the data did not follow a normal distribution, a non-parametric test, the Mann–Whitney U test, was performed. Results: Both dentists and dental hygienists perceived income and working hours to be of priority importance for quality job conditions. Dental hygienists valued holiday support and welfare, human relations, and personal development potential more than dentists (p＜0.05). Looking at differences by job type, dental hygienists rated all conditions as more important than dentists except income, indicating a statistically significant difference (p＜0.05). In terms of the work policies, 96.2% of the practices in the study were required to have the four types of social security contributions, but fewer had flexible working hours (19.7%), healthcare support (23.5%), and incentives (25.0%). Of the participants, 60.6% had parental leave available at their workplace, and dental hygienists had statistically significantly higher job satisfaction when parental leave was available (2.57 points) than when it was not (p＜0.05). Conclusion: Quality dental jobs are an important factor in keeping workers happy and maintaining an efficient practice. Dental practice owners need to pay attention to the quality of jobs required by the dental workforce, provide flexible working hours and welfare programs such as parental leave, and create a workplace atmosphere and human resource management system that supports the use of these programs.

Background: The purpose of this study was to confirm the major motivation for and self-efficacy of career decisions among dental hygiene students and to analyze differences in career decision self-efficacy according to the major motivation.Methods: An online survey was conducted among 194 dental hygiene students. To investigate career decision self-efficacy, 18 questions were posed, including 5 questions on future planning, 4 questions on self-evaluation, 4 questions on job information collection, 3 questions on goal setting, and 2 questions on problem solving. The survey was conducted using a 5-point scale. Results: The motives for choosing a major were a high employment rate (68.6%), a desire to become a professional (36.1%), according to aptitude (27.8%), recommendations by others (26.3%), and according to grades (12.9%). The career decision self-efficacy of the study participants was in the order of self-evaluation factors (3.75 points), problem solving factors a (3.62 points), job information collection factors (3.59 points), future planning factors (3.46 points), goal setting factors (3.44 points) score was high. The career decision self-efficacy scores were higher when the major motivation was “because I want to become a professional” and “because I think I have an aptitude for it.” Conclusion: It is necessary to give students who wish to major in dental hygiene an opportunity to consider whether they have an aptitude for it by providing information on not only major subjects but also the duties and roles of dental hygienists. In addition, it is necessary to develop a career education program to help dental hygiene students set their career goals.

Background: Dental hygienists study dental radiology through the dental hygiene department and curriculum, and most of the radiography work in dental clinics is performed by dental hygienists; however, the legal work regulations for dental hygienists place restrictions on the type of radiography performed. This study aimed to identify the actual conditions of the radiographic work performed by dental hygienists and to determine the difference according to the type of hospital.Methods: This study included 195 dental hygienists working at dental medical institutions in the metropolitan area. A survey was conducted on regarding the radiographic work performed and the clinical career of the main performers. The radiography work was divided into periapical radiography, bite-wing radiography, occlusal radiography, panoramic radiography, computed tomography (CT), and cephalometric radiography.Results: The frequency of performing intraoral radiography was as follows: periapical radiography, 94.9%; bite-wing radiography, 93.8%; and occlusal radiography, 77.9%. The frequency of performing extraoral radiography was 94.4% for panoramic radiography, 89.7% for CT, and 73.3% for cephalometric radiography. The frequency of internal and external radiography performance was higher among hygienists in dental clinics than among those in dental hospitals and university hospitals. The analysis of the dental hygienists’ clinical experience in the areas of intraoral and extraoral radiography showed that those working at university hospitals, dental hospitals, and dental clinics had over 5 years, 2∼4 years, and 1 year of clinical experience, respectively. The hygienists with less than 1 year of clinical experience showed high performance frequency (p＜0.05).Conclusion: For the dental hygienists to perform radiography safely, a discussion regarding the revision of related laws and regulations is warranted.

Background: The objective of the present study was to specifically divide the various work performed by dental hygienists in clinical practice for legal amendments regarding problems associated with conflict between job roles and illegal delegation to establish key basic data for legislation and policy utilization for realization of legal scope of dental hygienists.Methods: The study used work reports drafted based on research methods in the “Second Job Analysis Report on Dental Hygienists” researched by the Korean Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute in 2012 and “Opinions of Dentists on Actual and Legal Work of Dental Hygienists,” a report published by the Korean Dental Hygienists Association. Of these, the study focused on conservation dentistry, pediatric dentistry, prosthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and dental implant treatment, which make up some of the fields covered by dental hygiene practice, to investigate and analyzed work performed by clinical experience.Results: Analysis of work actually performed in dental practice showed that for work related to 33 items presented in the study methods, the participants responded that they are currently performing such work or are likely to perform such work in the future, although there were differences by year. Investigation by type of workplace showed that dental hygienists working in university hospitals could perform the work presented if they had ≥5 years of dental hygienist experience, whereas dental hygienists working in dental clinics or hospitals could perform simple duties in their first year and performed more diverse duties with greater degree of difficulty after their second to fourth year.Conclusion: The reality that medical assistance during surgical operations and various procedures that is still being performed is no longer legally protected directly contradicts the needs in dental practice, and thus, there is the need to amend laws that are realistic by clearly recognizing the work of dental hygienists.

Abdominal obesity is associated closely with insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Waist circumference (WC) is a useful surrogate marker commonly used for abdominal adiposity. The determination of WC cutoff levels is important in the prevention and treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and related cardiovascular diseases. Recent epidemiological evidence suggested that appropriate optimal cutoffs for Koreans ranged over 80 to 89.8 cm in males and 76.1 to 86.5 cm in females. We analyzed the data from two large cohorts using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis with the incidences of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cerebrovascular disease, myocardial infarct, angina, coronary artery disease, and multiple metabolic risk factors as outcome variables. Optimal WC cutoff points for Koreans were 85 cm in males and 80 cm in females. However, considering the prevalence of abdominal obesity and the health costs for its prevention and management, 90 cm in males and 85 cm in females are probably more appropriate thresholds for abdominal obesity. These values may be modified once better research is performed through prospective studies using representative populations, common health outcomes, and proper analytical approaches.

Background: Previous studies identified that a low adiponectin level plays a significant role in the development of metabolic syndrome (MetS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between adiponectin and MetS and its components in apparently healthy Koreans. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study in a sample of Koreans aged 30~59 years, including 256 men and 340 women. Study subjects were recruited by advertisement in Bundang and all had unremarkable medical histories. MetS was defined according to the 2009 Joint Interim Statement criteria. Serum adiponectin concen-trations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The mean ages of study subjects were 43.4 ± 8.1 for men and 44.3 ± 8.1 for women. Both men and women with MetS had significantly lower adiponectin levels and significantly higher HOMA-IR scores. The odds ratios (OR) for MetS in men and women with adiponectin levels in the lowest tertile were 3.56 (95% CI 1.83~6.91) and 6.38 (95% CI 2.35~17.3) compared with highest tertial, respectively. There was also a significant linear decrease with increasing tertiles of adiponectin levels in both men and women. This association between adiponectin and MetS was still significant after adjustment for age, BMI, and log HOMA-IR score in men. However, in women, this association disappeared after full adjustment (age, BMI, log HOMA-IR score). Conclusion: Adipo-nectin levels are independently associated with MetS and its components in apparently healthy Koreans. The relationship between low adiponectin levels and MetS was independent of insulin resistance in men, but not women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]