Intro to Dental Public Health Flashcards
Define oral health
Includes ability to speak, smile, smell, taste, touch, chew, swallow and convey a range of emotions through facial expressions with confidence and without pain, discomfort and disease of the craniofacial complex
Fundamental component of health and physical and mental wellbeing
Influenced by the individual’s changing experiences, perceptions, expectations and ability to adapt to circumstances
What influences the health of a population in the first place?
Environment - better housing and sanitation
Healthcare
How is dental public health different to individual pt care?
Serves community rather than individual patients
Applies research to community settings
What is the scope of dental public health?
Conductive environment - oral health promotion
Dental services
- Now and in the future
- Quality
- Working as a team
- Screening for oral disease
Skills
- Measure oral health needs
- Identify determinants of oral health
- Evaluate technology
What is oral health promotion based on?
Based on the knowledge that the environment determines individual risks and individual risk factors often beyond control of individuals
e.g. difficult to give up smoking if stressful life and all friends/fam smoke
Oral health promotions - 5 broad action - ottawa charter?
Create supportive environments - water fluoridation
Health public policy - restrict tobacco sales, sugar tax
Strengthening community action
Develop personal skills - parenting skills to improve supervision of toothbrushing
Reorienting health services - towards prevention
Uses of dental epidemiology?
Discover factors that affect health to provide basis for prevention of disease and promotion of health
Determine relative importance of causes of illness/disability/death to establish priorities for research and action
Identify sections of the population that have the greatest risk from specific causes of ill health so that action may be directed appropriately
Evaluate effectiveness of health programmes and services in improving the health of the population
What is evidence based healthcare useful for?
New restorative materials
Best approach to clinical prevention
Introducing a sugar tax
New app to promote toothbrushing
Why do EBD?
Pts have a right to expect effective tx
Save wasting resources on ineffective care
EBD skills are essential in that responsibility
What does the structure and management of dental services affect?
Payments to dentist and payment by pts
How dentists work and what tx they do
Practice management and responsibilities
How dentists integrate with other aspects of health care
Define quality
The nature, kind or character of something. The degree or grade of excellence possessed by . . .
WHO, 1983
Features or characteristics of a product that bear on its ability to satisfy a stated or implied need
British Standards Institute, 1983
Fitness for purpose
What makes up the dental team?
Hygienists, therapists, nurses and dental health educators
What do new types of dental care professionals (DCP) allow?
More efficient care
Services where there is no dentists
What will future dentists be able to do?
Work in larger teams with DCPs
Delegate straightforward txs
Concentrate on difficult cases
Screening?
Must be accurate
Must see screening as a programme, not a test
Must be services available
