Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the general attitude of dental hygiene students toward the disabled and their oral care in an effort to improve their awareness of the disabled and their accessibility to them and suggest some of the right directions for dental hygiene education related to dental treatment for the disabled. The subjects in this study were dental hygiene students at three different colleges located in South Jeolla Province. The general attitude of the selected students toward the disabled and their oral care were investigated from November 1 to December 20, 2007. The findings of the study were as follows: When their general attitude toward disabled people was checked, they agreed the most that there was nothing that the disabled lagged behind nondisabled people. Those who felt the need for that took a more positive attitude in eight items, and the differences between them and the others were significant. Whether they were cognizant of the necessity of dental treatment education for the disabled made the most significant differences to each variable of their attitude toward the oral care of disabled people, and those who were aware of the necessity showed a more positive attitude in five items. The differences between them and the others were significant. The findings of the study illustrated that the dental hygiene students took a relatively favorable attitude toward disabled people's oral health care, and that they hardly felt a sense of distance to them. So it can be predicted that they will get to take the right attitude to them in the future. Yet the dental hygiene curriculum should give more weight to dental treatment education for the disabled and offer more relevant information, since they didn't get high scores on positive attitude.

Keywords

• Attitude;
• Dental Hygiene student;
• Disabled