Community dentistry and oral epidemiology
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Community Dent Oral Epidemiol · Aug 2017
The value of a combined word recognition and knowledge measure to understand characteristics of our patients' oral health literacy.
The objective of the analysis was to examine the association between sociodemographic and dental understanding and utilization characteristics and lower oral health literacy (HL) and knowledge. ⋯ The analysis confirmed that pronunciation of medical and dental terms may not fully reflect comprehension and revealed that understanding both patients' sociodemographic and dental understanding and utilization factors, such as transportation to the dental office associated with lower oral HL and knowledge, could help the profession develop appropriate clear language programmes to improve access to dental care for vulnerable populations.
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Community Dent Oral Epidemiol · Aug 2017
Multicenter StudyOral health conceptual knowledge and its relationships with oral health outcomes: Findings from a Multi-site Health Literacy Study.
In 2010, a health literacy instrument designed to measure oral health conceptual knowledge was introduced. This developmental work was limited in that it included a relatively small and homogeneous study population and few oral health measures against which to test concurrent validity. The purpose of the present investigation is to expand upon the earlier work by utilizing a larger study sample and additional outcome variables. ⋯ The present investigation provides additional support for the CMOHK's validity. Researchers are encouraged to incorporate oral health conceptual knowledge into their theoretical frameworks, especially as it relates to beliefs and self-efficacy.
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Community Dent Oral Epidemiol · Aug 2017
Prescribing patterns of analgesics and other medicines by dental practitioners in Australia from 2001 to 2012.
Dental practitioners are able to prescribe a variety of medicines subsidized on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule (PBS), the main categories of which are analgesics and antibiotics. We aimed to investigate the patterns of PBS prescribing of non-antimicrobial medicines by dental practitioners in Australia from 2001 to 2012. ⋯ Dental prescribing of analgesics, anti-inflammatories and benzodiazepines in the concessional population has increased significantly over the past decade. These data can form the baseline to further examine appropriate medicine use in the management of dental conditions.