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Studies demonstrate that dental providers value effective provider-patient communication but use few recommended communication techniques. This study explored perspectives of California dental providers and oral health literacy experts in the United States on use of communication techniques. We conducted a qualitative key informant interview study with 50 participants between November 2019 and March 2020, including 44 dental providers (dentists, hygienists, and assistants) in public or private practice in California and 6 oral health literacy (OHL) experts. We undertook thematic analysis of interview transcripts and descriptive statistics about interviewees from pre-surveys. Dental providers reported frequently speaking slowly, and using simple language and models/radiographs to communicate with patients, while infrequently using interpretation/translation, illustrations, teach-back, or motivational interviewing. Providers reported using only 6 of the 18 American Medical Association's (AMA) recommended communication techniques and only 3 of the 7 AMA's basic communication techniques. A majority of providers indicated using one of five oral health assessment and educational strategies. Key barriers to effective communication included limited time, financial incentives promoting treatment over prevention, lack of OHL training, limited plain-language patient education materials, and patients with low OHL knowledge. Dental organizations should prioritize supporting dental providers in effective patient communication practices. Standardizing OHL continuing education, creating an evidence-based OHL toolkit for dental teams, ensuring accessible interpretation/translation services, and incentivizing dental providers to deliver education could improve oral health literacy and outcomes.

Objective: Health education interventions during pregnancy can influence maternal oral health (OH), maternal OH-behaviors and children's OH. Interventions that can be delivered at anytime and anywhere, for example mobile-health (mHealth) provides an opportunity to address challenges of health education and support activation of women in underserved and rural communities to modify their health behavior. This pilot study was undertaken as a part of a mHealth initiative to determine knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to pregnancy and ECC prevention among women attending obstetrics/gynecology (OB/GYN) practices at a large rurally-based clinic. Methods: A cross-sectional survey study was voluntarily engaged by women (n = 191) aged 18 to 59 years attending OB/GYN visits, over a 3-week period from 12/2019 to 1/2020. Survey results were analyzed applying descriptive statistics, X 2 and Fisher's Exact tests. The significance level was set at P <.0001 for all analyses. Results: Approximately half of respondents were between 18 and 29 years (53%), had a college degree (55%), and 100% reported cell phone use. Whereas 53% and 31%, respectively, indicated that they were "somewhat" or "very" sure of how to prevent ECC in their children, only 9% recognized evidence of early decay and 30% did not know the purpose of fluoride. Overall, only 27% of participants correctly answered the knowledge-based questions. Further, only 57% reported their provider explained things in a way that was easy to understand. Only 24% reported seeing a dentist during their current pregnancy. Conclusions: Study results suggested potential gaps in knowledge and behaviors related to ECC prevention and provided baseline data to inform future interventions to improve ECC prevention practices. Notably, majority of participants used their cell phones for making medical/dental appointments and reported using their phones to look up health-related information. This demographic represents a potentially receptive target for mHealth approaches to improve understanding of oral health maintenance during pregnancy and ECC prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral health is an integral part of the Healthy People initiative, a 40-year national health promotion and disease prevention effort that sets and monitors objectives with data-driven targets for each decade. The framework for the next decade, Healthy People 2030, includes new components and a focus on health literacy for the first time. This paper discusses oral health in the context of this framework and implications for supporting progress toward the new objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we explored what Maryland obstetric (OB) residents and certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) know, understand, and counsel pregnant women about oral health. We also examined the frequency with which they refer patients to dentists and their perspectives on barriers to prenatal dental care. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study used one-on-one phone interviews to identify providers’ perspectives about the need for prenatal dental care, reasons low-income pregnant women do not receive care, and recommendations for increasing dental care. We interviewed 32 providers between June 2017 and March 2018. Results: Most providers were unaware of the importance of and need for prenatal dental care. Most did not discuss dental care with their patients and some admitted being inadequately trained to do so. Both provider groups were positive about actions they could take to increase pregnant patients’ dental care-seeking. Conclusions: For OB residents and CNMs to play an important role in improving pregnant patients’ oral health they must have adequate oral health literacy, receive appropriate training in medical and nursing school, possess oral health educational materials for their patients, and have a list of dental providers who accept their insurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the 2014 Mid-Maryland Mission of Mercy and Health Equity Festival (Mid-MOM) which was held at the University of Maryland's basketball arena in College Park, Maryland, and it mentions a dental clinic, public health ethics, and an effort to increase access to health and dental services. Public policy and community capacity building are examined, along with health promotion services and chronic disease risk factors. Preventive and restorative dentistry are assessed.

Background. Health care providers' use of recommended communication techniques can increase patients' adherence to prevention and treatment regimens and improve patient health outcomes. The authors conducted a survey of Maryland dentists to determine the number and type of communication techniques they use on a routine basis. Methods. The authors mailed a 30-item questionnaire to a random sample of 1,393 general practice dentists and all 169 members of the Maryland chapter of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. The overall response rate was 38.4 percent. Analysis included descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and ordinary least squares regression analysis to examine the association of dentists' characteristics with the number of communication techniques used. They set the significance level at P < .05. Results. General dentists reported routinely using a mean of 7.9 of the 18 communication techniques and 3.6 of the seven basic techniques, whereas pediatric dentists reported using a mean of 8.4 and 3.8 of those techniques, respectively. General dentists who had taken a communication course outside of dental school were more likely than those who had not to use the 18 techniques (P < .01) but not the seven basic techniques (P < .05). Pediatric dentists who had taken a communication course outside of dental school were more likely than those who had not to use the 18 techniques (P < .05) and the seven basic techniques (P < .01). Conclusions. The number of communication techniques that dentists used routinely varied across the 18 techniques and was low for most techniques. Practical Implications. Professional education is needed both in dental school curricula and continuing education courses to increase use of recommended communication techniques. Specifically, dentists and their team members should consider taking communication skills courses and conducting an overall evaluation of their practices for user friendliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/purpose: This study was carried out to evaluate Taiwanese dentists' knowledge and practice towards preventive dental care. Materials and methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted at the nationwide annual dental congress in 2008 in Taipei, Taiwan. Dentists' knowledge about preventive dentistry was assessed based on their responses to 19 statements. Dentists' attitudes towards preventive dentistry were assessed based on responses to the effectiveness of 16 preventive procedures. The dentists were also asked about their experience with the use of sealants and fluoride. Results: More than 80% could not distinguish between new and old theories of the mechanism of action of fluoride. The correct answer was "remineralization of incipient decay", not "incorporation of fluoride into developing teeth". Also 68% incorrectly answered that "lactobacilli play a more-significant role in the initiation of smooth surface carious lesions than do mutans streptococci", an older theory. Over 80% perceived the effectiveness of "pit and fissure sealants", "professional prophylaxis", and "flossing" for preventing caries in children, and the last 2 procedures for adults. "Community water fluoridation" and sealants were selected as the most effective procedures for caries prevention in children, and "professional prophylaxis" and "flossing" for adults. Although sealants were perceived as being effective, 44% of dentists reported that they only applied sealants to ⩽ 0% of their [children/pediatric?] patients. The reasons were that patients had difficulty understanding the value (67%) and were unwilling to pay (63%). Nearly 55% of dentists provided topical fluoride treatments to children more than 2 times per year. However, the frequency decreased to Less than once per year for teenagers and adults. Most of the dentists finished a fluoride application in 1 mm for in-office treatments. Conclusions: A portion of Taiwanese dentists seemed to have limited up-to-date information about certain topics related to caries prevention. The frequency of treatments for caries prevention, such as topical fluoride and sealants, did not match the perceived effectiveness of these treatments by participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral and pharyngeal cancers are associated with high mortality rates, a situation usually attributed to late-stage diagnosis. Dentists in British Columbia and Nova Scotia were surveyed regarding their practices and opinions related to oral and pharyngeal cancer. In February 1998 a pretested, 41-item survey was mailed to a random sample of dentists in British Columbia (n = 817) and the population of dentists in Nova Scotia (N = 423). A reminder postcard and one additional mailing were sent to nonrespondents. Of the 670 dentists supplying usable responses (response rate 55.2%), only 56.7% agreed that their knowledge of the subject was current. Of 8 health history items, dentists assessed 5 on average, with most (88.0%) asking about the patients' current use of tobacco. A total of 72.7% of the responding dentists performed an oral cancer examination for all edentulous patients at every appointment, but 10.9% never did so. Similarly, 70.7% of the dentists always provided an oral cancer examination at the initial appointment for patients 40 years of age and older, but 9.8% never did so. Undergraduate training related to oral cancer examination was reported as good by only 52.2% of the dentists. About three-quarters of all dentists (77.0%) were interested in taking continuing education courses on this subject. Differences between the 2 provinces were not statistically significant (p > 0.01). Dentists in British Columbia and Nova Scotia could benefit from undergraduate and continuing education courses to increase their knowledge of health history assessment, examination for oral and pharyngeal cancers, and risk reduction strategies, such as counseling about tobacco cessation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral and pharyngeal cancers are largely preventable and can be successfully treated when diagnosed at an early stage. Dentists in British Columbia and Nova Scotia were surveyed regarding their knowledge and opinions about oral and pharyngeal cancer. In February 1998 a pretested 41-item survey was mailed to a random sample of dentists in British Columbia and the population of dentists in Nova Scotia. A reminder postcard and one additional mailing were sent to nonrespondents. Of the 670 dentists supplying usable responses (response rate 55.2%) only 56.7% agreed that their knowledge of the subject was current. Most dentists correctly identified tobacco use (99.4%) and alcohol use (90.4%) as risk factors, but fewer correctly identified factors such as the use of spicy foods (57.0%) and poor oral hygiene (46.3%) as not being risk factors. Only 42.5% identified both erythroplakia and leukoplakia, in that order, as the conditions most likely associated with oral cancer. Indices of risk and diagnostic knowledge were constructed by summing the number of correct responses to items in each domain. On 16 risk factors the mean correct score was 9.2, and on 14 diagnostic procedures the mean correct score was 10.0. Only 38.5% of dentists had consistent levels of knowledge on both indices. Differences between the provinces were statiscally significant (p < 0.01) for only 2 knowledge items. About three-quarters of all dentists (77.0%) were interested in taking continuing education courses. Dentists in British Columbia and Nova Scotia could benefit from undergraduate and continuing education courses to increase their knowledge of risk and diagnostic factors for oral cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profiles Charles W. Gish, a dentist and the recipient of the John W. Knutson Distinguished Service Award in Dental Public Health in 2004 in the U.S. Family background; Educational attainment; Contributions of Gish in the field of dentistry.

The article examines the significant of oral health literacy for individuals who are capable to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services to prevent or treat illness. It explores the significant relationship respect between the citizen and the caregiver to understand the needs of the patients. Also emphasized is the association of health literacy with other health and health care improvement priorities.