Dental Public Health and Health Education

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from the 'Dental Public Health and Health Education' lecture notes, including public health domains, prevention types, organizations like WHO and NAM, epidemiology, dental public health roles, socioeconomic factors, health education theories, and behavior modification.

Public Health (Initial Focus)

Caring for populations with disease; focused on the health of the population as a whole, not the individual.

Public Health (Current Goal)

Controlling the disease itself.

Three Essential Domains of Public Health

Protection, Prevention, Promotion.

Primary Prevention

Prevent disease from occurring.

Secondary Prevention

Terminate the disease process.

Tertiary Prevention

Replace lost tissues through rehabilitation.

World Health Organization (WHO)

Leads global efforts to expand universal health coverage with science-based policies and programs.

WHO 6-Point Agenda

Promoting development, fostering health security, strengthening health systems, harnessing research, enhancing partnerships, improving performance.

National Academy of Medicine (NAM)

Formerly Institute of Medicine (IOM), identified the 4 core functions of public health.

Assessment (NAM Core Function)

Analyzes public health (monitors the health of communities) to then create policy.

Policy Development (NAM Core Function)

To address needs and mechanisms for public health.

Assurance (NAM Core Function)

Ensures public health needs are being met.

Serving All Functions (NAM Core Function)

Researching new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.

Public Health Goals

Goals that guide all public health activities, including preventing epidemics, protecting against environmental hazards, preventing injuries, promoting healthy behaviors, responding to disasters, and ensuring quality/accessibility of health services.

Public Health Services

Interventions that help attain public health goals, such as monitoring health, educating people, mobilizing partnerships, developing policies, and enforcing laws.

Great Public Health Achievements of the Twentieth Century

Community water fluoridation, vaccinations, recognizing tobacco as hazardous.

Epidemiology

The study of the amount and distribution, determinants, and control of disease and health conditions among a given population.

Dental Public Health

Focuses on oral health care and education of a population, with an emphasis on the utilization of dental hygiene sciences.

Community Health

Focuses on specific, defined communities (e.g., neighborhoods, schools, workplaces).

Public Health (in contrast to Community Health)

Broad, concerning the health of entire populations (national, regional, or global level).

Roles of Dental Hygienist in Public Health

Administrator, Clinician, Researcher, Entrepreneur, Educator, Corporate.

Dental Therapists

Dental professionals with duties beyond an RDH, including limited extractions and minor procedures, practiced in states like Alaska, Minnesota, and Washington.

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Measured by income, education, and occupation; significantly influences oral health outcomes.

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

Non-medical factors that influence health outcomes, including Education Access/Quality, Economic Stability, Social/Community Context, Health Care Access/Quality, and Neighborhood/Built Environment.

Historical Approach to Dental Health Education

Paternalistic in nature, with RDHs as 'experts' and passive patients.

Modern Approach to Dental Health Education

Patient-centered, with RDHs as guides and actively-involved patients in decision-making.

Health

A state of physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease.

Health Literacy

The degree of an individual’s ability to find, understand, and use health information and services.

Target Populations

Groups of people who share health risks and are the focus of a specific intervention.

Five-Dimensional Health Model

A model of health encompassing Physical, Mental, Emotional, Social, and Spiritual dimensions.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A motivational theory comprising five tiers of human needs: Physiological, Safety, Love and belonging, Esteem, and Self-actualization.

Health Education

Instruction regarding health behaviors that bring individuals to a state of health awareness (e.g., teaching proper flossing technique).

Health Promotion

A process that informs and motivates people to adopt healthy behaviors to enhance their health and prevent disease (e.g., providing floss samples at a health fair).

Goals of Dental Health Education

To provide effective dental health education and change values aimed at improving healthy behaviors.

Behavior Change

Simply changing a behavior.

Habit

Behavior that becomes automatic.

Values

Ideas and beliefs a person possesses that influence behavior or give meaning.

Motivation

The will of an individual to act.

Health Belief Model (HBM)

A psychological model that predicts health behaviors based on beliefs about susceptibility, serious consequence, benefits of action, and salience.

Stages of Learning (Learning Ladder)

A theoretical model of learning progression including Unawareness, Awareness, Self-interest, Involvement, Action, and Habit.

Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change)

A model of change describing six stages of behavior modification: Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance, and Relapse or Termination.

Theory of Reasoned Action

Explains an individual's behavioral intention as a function of their attitude toward the behavior and subjective norms.

Theory of the Sense of Coherence

Focuses on how individuals cope with stress and stay healthy, based on feelings of comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness.

Social Cognitive Theory

Emphasizes that learning occurs in a social context with a dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment, and behavior.

Classical Conditioning

Animals become conditioned to act a certain way in response to a specific stimuli.

Operant Conditioning

Rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior.

Modeling/Observational Learning

Facilitate learning through imitation.