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Geriatric oral health competency among dental providers

BACKGROUND: Geriatrics as an educational topic has been a high priority in current health care. The innovative Age-Friendly health system with the 4Ms structure (what Matters most, Medication, Mentation, Mobility) needs to be integrated into oral health and dental services training. The purpose of t...

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Autores principales: Tabrizi, Maryam, Lee, Wei-Chen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AIMS Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8568591/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34786428
http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/publichealth.2021054
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author Tabrizi, Maryam
Lee, Wei-Chen
author_facet Tabrizi, Maryam
Lee, Wei-Chen
author_sort Tabrizi, Maryam
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Geriatrics as an educational topic has been a high priority in current health care. The innovative Age-Friendly health system with the 4Ms structure (what Matters most, Medication, Mentation, Mobility) needs to be integrated into oral health and dental services training. The purpose of this study is to respond to one question: are the graduating general dentists trained and prepared to treat medically vulnerable elderly in communities? METHODS: All pre-doctorate dental students from first year to fourth year were invited to voluntarily respond to an online survey provided on Qualtrics. The survey provided examples of two broken molar teeth that need extraction. First, students were asked how comfortable they felt extracting the two molars based on the x-rays. Then, the question was repeated to evaluate if they felt comfortable with extracting the teeth in a patient with one chronic condition and related medication(s). Finally, the students were again questioned whether they feel comfortable to provide the same service to medically vulnerable patients with multiple health conditions and polypharmacy. RESULTS: The majority of students who participated in this study said they were comfortable with extracting the teeth of patients without any chronic condition. However, many more chose to refer medically vulnerable patients with multiple chronic conditions and polypharmacy to a specialist. CONCLUSIONS: Dental education in many U.S. dental schools may provide adequate education and create competent general dentists. Yet, the competency and confidence required for dentists to be able to treat older adults with multiple health conditions and using prescribed or over-the-counter medication is insufficient.
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spelling pubmed-85685912021-11-15 Geriatric oral health competency among dental providers Tabrizi, Maryam Lee, Wei-Chen AIMS Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Geriatrics as an educational topic has been a high priority in current health care. The innovative Age-Friendly health system with the 4Ms structure (what Matters most, Medication, Mentation, Mobility) needs to be integrated into oral health and dental services training. The purpose of this study is to respond to one question: are the graduating general dentists trained and prepared to treat medically vulnerable elderly in communities? METHODS: All pre-doctorate dental students from first year to fourth year were invited to voluntarily respond to an online survey provided on Qualtrics. The survey provided examples of two broken molar teeth that need extraction. First, students were asked how comfortable they felt extracting the two molars based on the x-rays. Then, the question was repeated to evaluate if they felt comfortable with extracting the teeth in a patient with one chronic condition and related medication(s). Finally, the students were again questioned whether they feel comfortable to provide the same service to medically vulnerable patients with multiple health conditions and polypharmacy. RESULTS: The majority of students who participated in this study said they were comfortable with extracting the teeth of patients without any chronic condition. However, many more chose to refer medically vulnerable patients with multiple chronic conditions and polypharmacy to a specialist. CONCLUSIONS: Dental education in many U.S. dental schools may provide adequate education and create competent general dentists. Yet, the competency and confidence required for dentists to be able to treat older adults with multiple health conditions and using prescribed or over-the-counter medication is insufficient. AIMS Press 2021-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8568591/ /pubmed/34786428 http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/publichealth.2021054 Text en © 2021 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) )
spellingShingle Research Article
Tabrizi, Maryam
Lee, Wei-Chen
Geriatric oral health competency among dental providers
title Geriatric oral health competency among dental providers
title_full Geriatric oral health competency among dental providers
title_fullStr Geriatric oral health competency among dental providers
title_full_unstemmed Geriatric oral health competency among dental providers
title_short Geriatric oral health competency among dental providers
title_sort geriatric oral health competency among dental providers
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8568591/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34786428
http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/publichealth.2021054
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