Beliefs and experiences of oral health educators in Finnish health centres

Abstract

In Finland the personnel with the greatest oral health education (OHE) work-load are dental assistants and dental hygienists. Some of the OH educators spend the main part of their working time in OHE and can be considered to be full-time health educators. Others are part-time or occasional health educators. The aims of this study were to determine the beliefs, motivation, experiences, feedback, goal determination and methods of health education adopted by the OH educators in Finnish health centres. The 2 OH educators with the most OHE duties from every Finnish health centre (221) were asked to answer a questionnaire. Altogether 323 OH educators returned an acceptable questionnaire. Almost all (96%) of the respondents believed that OHE certainly or at least to some extent had affected the oral health habits of their patients. Their own enthusiasm was reported as a reason for choosing an OHE career by 50% of the respondents. OH educators described their work more frequently as difficult than easy, effective than ineffective, inspiring than boring, many-sided than simple and rewarding than frustrating. The most frequently mentioned inconveniences were the lack of OHE materials and the lack of systematic plans for OHE. Their professional training for OHE was felt to be adequate by 44% of the hygienists, 25% of the OHE dental assistants, 24% of the dental assistants and 16% of the dentists. It was rare that the goals of OHE were written in the patients' records; only 15% of the educators did so frequently. The most important means of promoting oral health were the model of the parents, encouraging and strengthening self-confidence and removing dental anxiety. It is concluded that the OHE personnel in Finland are well motivated and enthusiastic, but they lack more systematic plans, demonstration materials and professional training for OHE and their awareness of goals should be improved.