General Practice Residency Program, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, School of Dentistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
J Dent Educ. 2024 Mar;88(3):278-288. doi: 10.1002/jdd.13405. Epub 2023 Nov 3.
Research shows that adults who were Deaf or Hard of Hearing (HoH) had poorer oral health than adults who did not belong to this community. The objectives were to assess dentists' education, knowledge, attitudes, and professional behavior related to treating patients from the Deaf or HoH community and the relationships between these constructs.
A total of 207 members of the American Dental Association and the Michigan Dental Association responded to a mailed or web-based survey concerning their education, knowledge, attitudes, and professional behavior related to treating patients from the Deaf or HoH community.
On average, the respondents disagreed that they were well educated in classroom-based, clinical, or community-based dental school settings (five-point answer scale with 1 = disagree strongly; mean = 2.29/2.27/2.35) or by their professional organization (mean = 2.00) about treating Deaf or HoH patients. However, the more recently the respondents had graduated from dental school, the better they described their education about this topic (r = 0.29; p < 0.001). Additionally, 45.9% agreed/strongly agreed that they would like to attend a continuing education course about this topic; 68.9% agreed/agreed strongly that negative consequences for patients' general health can occur; and 61.1% that patients cannot be well educated about oral hygiene if Deaf or HoH patients do not have appropriate interpretive support in dental offices. The better dentists were educated about this topic, the more knowledge they had (r = 0.50; p < 0.001). On average, the respondents agreed more strongly that they were comfortable treating adult patients who communicated orally than patients using American Sign Language (4.02 vs. 3.25; p < 0.001).
These findings show that efforts are needed to improve dental school and continuing education curricula about dental treatment for Deaf and HoH patients. The more recently the respondents had graduated, the more positively they described their education. Increased dental school and continuing education efforts are still urgently needed.
研究表明，聋人或听力障碍者（HoH）的成年人的口腔健康状况不如不属于该群体的成年人。本研究旨在评估牙医在治疗聋人或 HoH 社区患者方面的教育、知识、态度和专业行为，并探讨这些因素之间的关系。
共有 207 名美国牙科协会和密歇根牙科协会的成员通过邮寄或网络调查的方式，对他们在治疗聋人或 HoH 社区患者方面的教育、知识、态度和专业行为进行了评估。
平均而言，受访者不同意他们在课堂、临床或社区牙科学校环境中接受了良好的教育（五分制，1 表示强烈不同意，平均值为 2.29/2.27/2.35），也不同意他们的专业组织（平均值为 2.00）在治疗聋人或 HoH 患者方面的教育。然而，受访者最近从牙科学校毕业的时间越近，他们对这一主题的教育描述就越好（r=0.29；p<0.001）。此外，45.9%的受访者表示愿意参加有关这一主题的继续教育课程；68.9%的受访者强烈同意患者的一般健康状况可能会出现负面后果；61.1%的受访者认为如果聋人或 HoH 患者在牙科诊所没有适当的口译支持，他们就无法接受良好的口腔卫生教育。牙医在这一主题上接受的教育越好，他们的知识就越丰富（r=0.50；p<0.001）。平均而言，受访者更强烈地同意他们在治疗通过口头沟通的成年患者方面感到舒适，而不是使用美国手语（4.02 与 3.25；p<0.001）的患者。
这些发现表明，需要努力改进牙科学校和继续教育课程，以提供针对聋人和 HoH 患者的牙科治疗。受访者最近毕业的时间越近，他们对自己的教育描述就越积极。仍然迫切需要增加牙科学校和继续教育的努力。
