Patient safety is important in the field of dental hygiene. Medical procedures involving dental care have numerous health risks, even though they are not perceived as high risk by the popular opinion. According to the study by Choi et al. (2019), “various health risks accompany many of the frequently performed surgical treatments, such as cross-contaminations that threaten the patients and their healthcare providers” (p. 2).
The safety of patients is a primary responsibility of dentists, as it is showcased in the British TV series This is going to hurt. According to Mallineni et al. (2020), “dental practices are focal points for cross‐infection, and care must be taken to minimise the risk of infection to, from, or between dental care professionals and patients” (p. 2).
Dentists have to be dedicated to their profession to provide high-quality care and maintain their own motivation. Dedication is important since it allows doctors to manage pressure and maintain professional attitude throughout the practice, which can be psychologically strenuous. According to the study by Deeb et al. (2018), dental practice is associated with a large amount of stress and pressure, which may cause medical professionals to experience burnout and have suicidal ideations (p. 74).
Dentists have to acquire experience, skills, and knowledge from multiple sources. The complexity of dental conditions requires doctors to constantly learn new techniques, diseases, and abilities that would enable them to treat patients, while ensuring their well-being. According to the study by Hoskin et al. (2019), nurse educators believe that “critical thinking, technical skills, clinical decision making, ethics, problem-solving” are all equally important learning domains for dental doctors (p. 245).
References
Choi, E. M., Mun, S. J., Chung, W. G., & Noh, H. J. (2019). Relationships between dental hygienists’ work environment and patient safety culture. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1-7.
Deeb, G. R., Braun, S., Carrico, C., Kinser, P., Laskin, D., & Golob Deeb, J. (2018). Burnout, depression and suicidal ideation in dental and dental hygiene students. European Journal of Dental Education, 22(1), 70-74.
Hoskin, E. R., Johnsen, D. C., Saksena, Y., Horvath, Z., de Peralta, T., Fleisher, N., & Leone, C. (2019). Dental educators’ perceptions of educational learning domains. Journal of Dental Education, 83(1), 79-87.
Mallineni, S. K., Innes, N. P., Raggio, D. P., Araujo, M. P., Robertson, M. D., & Jayaraman, J. (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID‐19): Characteristics in children and considerations for dentists providing their care. International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry, 30(3), 245-250.