Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of this study is to identify the status and opinions of professional oral health care performance in oral cancer patients. Methods: Seven National University Dental Hospitals and the National Cancer Center in Korea surveyed the medical personnel in charge of oral health care for oral cancer patients. The questionnaire consisted of 16 questions, including the status of expert oral health care education and performance for oral cancer patients, etc. A total of 47 questionnaires were retrieved, and the collected data were used in PASW Statistics 23.0 to perform frequency analysis, cross-analysis, and kruskal Wallis tests. Results: A survey of oral health care education found that 29.8% of the medical personnel had received education. The most performed of professional oral health care was found that applying fluoride by dental hygienist, treating stomatitis by dentist, and wiping mouths with sponge by nurse. The assessment of self-performance has shown that applying fluoride by dental hygienists has a statistically significant difference. Only 37.8% of oral health care education for patients was conducted. Most recognized that oral health care in oral cancer patients was important, but it is difficult to provide care due to lack of performance personnel and time, opportunities for performance personnel to be educated. The improvement was found to require an increase in the number of performance personnel, placement of professionals, and practical training to enhance performance capabilities. Conclusions: For oral health care of oral cancer patients, continuous education for medical personnel, establishment of oral health care manual and medical system, research on oral health care of oral cancer patients and public relations campaign will have to be activated. Development of expert care manual analysis and evaluation tools for oral health care in oral cancer patients in the future and development of standardized curriculum will be necessary.
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