Dental care at commune health center in Cai Be district, Tien Giang province: Practical implications

Tóm tắt

Objective: To analyze the status of dental care activities, including prevention and treatment of dental conditions at 09 health commune stations in Cai Be district, Tien Giang province in the period of 2016 - 2018.

Methods: The study used a cross-sectional design (using qualitative and secondary data), to conduct, 18 in-depth interviews with administrators of 1 district health center, 3 commune health stations, 3 medical staff in charge of oral diseases, 8 patients, and 3 school medical staff. Thematic analysis was used, and quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics

Findings: Communication activities for dental care were carried out annually; all patients were consulted and educated on oral health and prevention measures for oral and dental diseases. All 09 commune health stations have medical staff in charge of oral diseases; however, their professional qualifcations are limited. Usually, they are not dentists but dentomaxillofacial physicians, or even nurses in some stations. All 09/09 commune health stations do not have staff that are trained on dental care at hospitals.

Conclusions: Dental care at the commune level has a number of limitations, requiring further development of human resources, technical support, communication activities, and oral care supervision at communal health stations and schools.