Problem Statement Some pregnant women may be at increased risk of poor oral health for a variety of reasons.
These reasons include that women perceive more barriers to dental care, have less positive reinforcement for receiving dental care, have less access to dental care, have lower education levels, maintain less healthy lifestyles, and have lower compliance with recommendations. Poor utilization of prenatal dental care will cause the risks of maternal transmission of cavity-causing bacteria to the infant, progression of periodontal disease and dental caries. Low-income pregnant women face great difficulty in obtaining dental services, as private dental services for low-income pregnant are not affordable and limited (Lin, Harrison,
…show more content…
The preventive programs for maternal and infants need to be initiated no later than six months of pregnancy and continue throughout development and eruption of child’s teeth. The prenatal dental program ensures that expectant mothers receive an early dental examination, oral health guidance for themselves and the future child, as well as quality dental care with a positive referral system to extensive dental care. The prenatal dental programs in Houston, Texas can offer prenatal dental care for low-income women in public health setting and it can be effective in improving oral health outcomes during pregnancy, because women are particularly receptive to health education at that time; these programs are funded under maternal child health services block grant and there is a need to maintain the program activities in the future (Lin, Harrison, & Aleksejuniene, …show more content…
Demographic data such as age, level of education and ethnicity will be taken into account in the results of the final report. The survey includes questions that are designed to meet the objectives of the project and the survey encompasses three parts; the first part will include questions about knowledge and attitude toward oral health after visiting the clinic. The overall knowledge and attitude of expectant mothers toward infant oral health and their own oral hygiene practices will be measured using closed-ended questions of recommended oral health behaviors.The second part contains questions about program satisfaction with 85% response rate. The third part will include closed-ended questions about the effects of dental guidance and attitude of the participants about infant’s oral care. Most responses will be coded as yes or no, and don’t know responses will be identified as incorrect. Overall oral health knowledge will be measured as the percentage of questions answered correctly based on a range of 0–100%. The survey questionnaires will be tested in the pilot study, revised and reviewed for clarity and comprehension. Questionnaire forms will be distributed and collected by a dental professional who will conduct the survey and data collection. Lastly, Univariate and bivariate analyses (Student's t-test and ANOVA) will be
The disparities may be attributed to the amount of prenatal care that pregnant women of different ethnicities receive. In 1996, 81.8% of all women in the nation received prenatal care in the first trimester--the m...
As I started my new journey of becoming a dental hygienist, I came into the program with no background of dental. I came into this program with an open mind and willing to embrace new concepts as well as develop new skills. During my time at the Canadian Academy of Dental Hygiene (CADH), I learned that as a dental hygienist that I am committed to promoting and helping each individual achieve their optimal oral health goals. In support of my client’s goals, I may assume any or all of the roles included in the dental hygiene scope of practice. My goal throughout this program was to help my clients achieve their optimal oral health goals through education, health promotion and providing preventive and clinical therapy.
Two-thirds of infants die during the first month of life due to low birth weight (Lia-Hoagberg et al, 1990). One reason for this outcome is primarily due to difficulties in accessing prenatal care. Prenatal health care encompasses the health of women in both pre and post childbearing years and provides the support for a healthy lifestyle for the mother and fetus and/or infant. This form of care plays an important role in the prevention of poor birth outcomes, such as prematurity, low birth weight and infant mortality, where education, risk assessment, treatment of complications, and monitoring of fetus development are vital (McKenzie, Pinger,& Kotecki, 2012). Although every woman is recommended to receive prenatal health care, low-income and disadvantaged minority women do not seek care due to structural and individual barriers.
Imagine having to spend half your fortune on correcting your teeth.”Tooth decay was a perennial national problem that meant a mouthful of silver for patients, and for dentists a pocketful of gold.” (Wallis, 17) If patients don’t take care of their teeth, many issues can start to appear later in their life. Some patients are not knowledgeable of the correct procedures toward keeping a healthy smile. In order to keep a healthy smile patients must be better informed about the knowledge to achieve that success and also maintain.
Each country in today’s world has their own growth and their own dental care system. As you can see in appendix 5 and 6 you will see “Scorecard assessment of state of evidence for action, leadership, resources and health systems in important areas of oral health”(Beaglehole Pg 90). The global scale is organized in 3 categories high income, middle income and low income countries. High income countries world population is on...
In the Dental Hygiene field, many challenges come about every day and during different situations. Every day there are new challenges and unusual situations that occur in the dental field, but one challenge that continues to come about and has been a big dispute over the years is the ability to provide beneficial information about oral health care for the underprivileged. For the individuals that are not fortunate enough to pay to have services done in the dental office, lack the knowledge of how important good oral health care is. They do not receive the one on one conversations explaining the significance of taking care of your teeth and gums that the patients who can afford to make appointments and receive essential services do. That
(1) LOW INCOME AND LACK OF INSURANCE: A number of studies have linked poor oral health with low socioeconomic status. Affordability is identified as major challenge in accessing dental care. “For instance, 17.3 per cent of the whole population (i.e., approximately
Since everyone wants good teeth to be able to eat and speak, dental insurance is as crucial as life insurance coverage plans as well as house insurance and car insurance. (Klapp par.1) While in 22 states they have no need for coverage and in six states only have emergency coverage and another 16 states does not cover preventative services on teeth. (Wallace par.1) insurance companies have jumped on having dental insurance due to them realizing that it is need by individuals who are not covered by their job or company. ( “Vital” par.6) when you are covered you have many benefits such as free procedures. To m...
According to literature, age for transition is before age of 18. Therefore, we considered subjects with age of 18 and younger to assess dental
Cappelli, D. P., & Mobley, C. C. (2008). Prevention in clinical oral health care. St. Louis, Mo: Mosby Elsevier.
Oral health has a direct impact on the general health, hence, it is important that all Canadians have adequate access to dental care services. While many Canadians have reported to having good oral health, there is a significant proportion of the population that experience difficulty accessing dental care. Dental care is delivered through the private sector and financed almost completely through a combination of employment-based insurance (53%) and out-of-pocket payments (43%). Only a small amount of dental care (approximately 5%) is supported by Government for groups deemed in social need. Socio-economic factors determine dental care utilization and are associated with poorer dental health outcomes.
Evidence-based dentistry (EBD) has become an important factor in how dentists work and has become a well-developed concept that is integral to the everyday life of dental practitioners. It helps achieve more effective practice therefore there has been a push for progress meaning EBD is now incorporated into dental education. (1) EBD is ‘a method for rapidly aggregating, distilling and implementing the best evidence in the clinical practice.’(2) This means combining the best updated evidence with the experience of the dentist.(3) It also involves taking the health, history and autonomy of the patient into account to produce a tailored approach to treatment decisions.(4,5)
This directed me towards taking one of the most important decisions of my life of coming to the United States to pursue Masters of Public Health (MPH) and learn from the pioneers who have successfully integrated it in the society with positive results. I wanted to apply my knowledge beyond the borders of dental hygiene education and learn sophisticated methods to address the co-morbidities and healthcare access inequalities, as I have seen in a lot of my patients. My interest in mathematics compelled me to choose Epidemiology major and learn statistical software to study disease burden, distribution and trends. I volunteered in George Washington University (GWU) ISCOPES- Adult health literacy team, where we attended Emory transitional house and educated people about various health topics including oral health. During my MPH, I did my practicum at Washington DC, Department of Health on “Analysis of utilization of dental home linkage and preventive dental services among DC Medicaid children less than 3years of age for calendar year 2014” using Statistical Analysis System software (SAS). This project gave me an insight about the Current Dental Terminology codes and the trends in service utilization in a subset of the U.S. population. I was graciously honored with Practicum Research Fellowship Award by my school for my
Pursuing a career in the dental public health field was a decision influenced by many factors starting by my passion for research. One of the main reasons for applying for my dental public health residency at Columbia University is the fact that it has a great research program, which is ranked among the top research facilities in the world. Columbia university’s dental public health residency department possess ample opportunities for research for those motivated to take advantage enough to r...
The most important indicators of a community’s overall health are maternal, infant, and child health. It deals with the health of women of childbearing age from pre-pregnancy, labor, delivery and the postpartum period and the health of the child prior to birth through the adolescence (McKenzie & Pinger, 2015, p.192). Health data that is collected towards maternal, infant and child health are used to see the effectiveness of disease prevention and health promotion services in a community. Prenatal health care is one of the fundamentals of a safe pregnancy. An infant’s health depends on the mother.