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Orthodontists' Attitudes Toward Expanding Career Opportunities For The Dental Hygienist In Orthodontics, Julie A. Foster

Dental Hygiene Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this survey was to determine attitudes of orthodontists toward employing dental hygienists. A self-designed, 33 item questionnaire was used to obtain descriptive data. The questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of orthodontists chosen from the United States portion of the Orthodontic Directory of the World (N=500). Data were obtained from 298 orthodontists for a 58.6 percent response rate.

The study suggests that although orthodontists believe dental hygienists are important oral health professionals (96.2 percent) and important parts of the orthodontic practice (32.6 percent), only 10.9 percent of orthodontists surveyed employ dental hygienists. Factors determined to be …