Theories Of Dental Hygiene

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Prevention and patient education are considered a hallmark of the dental hygiene profession. According to the American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA) Code of Ethics (2016), dental hygienists have "a primary role in promoting the well-being of individuals and the public by engaging in health promotion/disease prevention activities." To fulfill the profession's code of ethics, dental hygienists must have a thorough knowledge of health models and health behavior theories that affect oral health behaviors. Many such theories are now available and have been applied to oral health, and others are sure to be introduced and tested in the future. Theories that I hope are built on in the future and that I hope to play a vital role in is the increased …show more content…

The American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Student Dental Association (ASDA) have both been negative regarding the concept of mid-level dental practitioners, negativity that has trickled down to state leadership. Organizations like these have argued that dental therapists lack the training and education needed to perform irreversible surgical procedures and to identify patients' other medical problems (Gorman, 2012). But advocates and researchers counter concern about insufficient training and substandard quality being speculative. Therapists are properly educated and help close vast gaps in care that can lead to costly emergency room visits for dental problems (MDH, 2014). While dentists are a critical component to dental health, dental hygienists play just as an important role if not a more impactful one in these types of situations. Although the dental therapy workforce model is still immerging in the United States, the state of Minnesota’s oral health community has done well to build the basic foundations of the profession. I believe that from these continued findings that there will be a call for action in the oral health sector and hopefully make waves for major health reform. Workforce policy will be integral to these developments, with policymakers and health providers focusing on expanding team care, integrating new providers, and reconfiguring scopes of practice to expand access and address anticipated provider

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