ATTITUDES AND OPINIONS ON DENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AND FLUORIDE IN JAPANESE DENTAL HYGIENISTS.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify the opinions and attitudes of dental hygienists in Japan, who play an important role in dental health services, on dental caries prevention including the use of fluorides, and to give useful information on making a dental health policy. A questionnaire was designed according to PRECEDE model relating Japanese dental hygienists' opinions and attitudes on dental caries prevention. And responses from the subjects were analyzed to identify relationships among factors of the model.Both dental hygienists who worked in public offices and health centers and those who worked in private clinics were likely to have enough predisposing factors which were comprised of positive attitudes toward dental health and knowledge of fluoride. But they indicated dissatisfaction regarding to enabling factors and reinforcing factors. Enabling factors were made up of a dental health budget and enough personnel, while reinforcing factors which promote dental caries prevention were comprised of perception of their colleagues. In diagnosis of behavior, which was expressed as a choice of procedure of prevention, both of dental hygienists appeared to accept plaque control and sugar control as the best method. A low proportion of the respondents supported the use of fluorides, and very few dental hygienists chose general application of fluoride such as water fluoridation. Resulting from LISREL analysis, reinforcing factors had a strong positive influence on predisposing factors, enabling factors and choice of preventive procedure. It was suggested that dental hygienists who worked in public offices and health centers tended to choose caries preventive procedures without fluoride, like plaque control. Further, it was recognized that knowledge and belief of fluoride among predisposing factors was the most significant factor for the subjects to choose water fluoridation.