Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C Miyasaki.
Dental professionals have seriously considered the risks to the public from dental amalgam, fluoridated water and HIV transmission in the dental office. These issues are important to the public, who typically rely on practicing dentists for information about just how serious the risks are.
The public traditionally has held dentistry in high regard as a profession. But some recent evidence suggests a decline in public confidence--a fact that may be affecting the way dentists view themselves. What should and can be done?
On July 27, 1990, the Centers for Disease Control reported possible transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from a dentist to a patient as a result of patient care. We surveyed a random national probability sample of 300 dentists with a 26-item survey in August and September 1990 to assess reactions to the report (response rate, 59%). Respondents tended not to believe the report (mean was 3.2, median 3.0, where 1 indicated "do not believe" and 7 indicated "believe"). Our sample also tended to believe that transmission of HIV from dentists to patients was unlikely in the future (mean was 2.0, median 2.0, where 1 indicated "not at all likely" and 7 indicated "very likely"). Fifty-one percent of our sample recommended that dentists infected with HIV should discontinue practice, while 38% recommended continuing practice with changes in procedures. Seventy-four percent believed patients should be told if their dentist was infected with HIV. In summary, dentists doubted the possibility of dentist-to-patient transmission of HIV and did not believe the Centers for Disease Control case report, but they did believe infected dentists should refrain from clinical work or modify their practice.
Because many dentists were trained before HIV disease was recognized and its implications for dentistry understood, there is a need for effective continuing education programs about the disease for health professionals. Unfortunately, much of the continuing professional education about AIDS in the last few years has been poorly evaluated and the value of continuing education itself has increasingly been called into question. In order to clarify how continuing educational efforts can be designed and evaluated, we report on our continuing educational projects and research which culminated in research on a nationwide educational intervention about AIDS for dentists. We outline and evaluate the steps taken in designing both the intervention and the research. The strengths and weaknesses of the design are discussed and suggestions made about how the design could be improved.
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