Abstract
This study examined the opinions of dentists on dental hygienists' practice and attempted to use it as the basis for the revision and modification of the legal system associated with dental hygienists. The subjects of this study were a total 15 dentists, including two from Gyeonggi, two from Gangwon, two from Gyeongsang, two from Jeolla, two from Chungcheong, and two from Seoul, who were surveyed face-to-face. This study revealed that from the perspective of dentists, the most important job of dental hygienists was scaling, and the most difficult job was patient counseling and response. From the perspective of dentists, there is a difference between what the dental hygienists actually perform and what is legal, and there is a high need for change. The inclusion of dental hygienists in the category of medical personnel should be accomplished to cover the practice of dental care support, and dentists opinionated that it is appropriate for dental hygienists to be included in the category of medical personnel because they directly perform oral health-related procedures. A careful review of the dental hygienists' scope of work should be performed to ensure that revisions to the law are made in accordance with the dental hygienists' actual practice. Further, it is necessary to revise the Medical Law and include dental hygienists among the medical personnel and simultaneously revise the scope of work of dental hygienists to reflect the actual dental practice.
