Practice characteristics and views of dental hygienists in Lithuania

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the employment possibilities of Lithuanian dental hygienists.

Methods: The questionnaire asked about the demographics of dental hygienists, characteristics of practice, patient load, career intentions, opinion about dental hygienists workforce and the need of governmental workforce regulation. The study consisted of all licensed dental hygienists in Lithuania in 2018 (N = 1109).

Results: The final response rate was 52.1% (n = 578), 64% (n = 370) of respondents lived in the country's five main cities, and 73.5% (n = 425) worked in these population centres, with 94.3% (n = 545) worked in private sector. Over two-thirds of respondents said there was an excess of dental hygienists in Lithuania. Nearly 80% "always" or "sometimes" reported that they had insufficient patients, which may account for the prevalence of supplementary work (48.4%, n = 280), that is work as a dental assistant (67.9%, n = 190). Data obtained show that dental hygienists with less than ten years' experience were likely to work as a dental assistant (P < .05). Notwithstanding, 73.9% (n = 428) of the dental hygienists reported that they only want to practice their profession. Most (83.4%, n = 483) struggled to find dental hygienist work, and 70.5% (n = 408) wanted regulation of number of dental hygienists at a national level.

Conclusions: The respondents suggested there is (a) a lack of dental hygiene patients, (b) available workload for additional preventive dental hygiene services, (c) pressure to search for additional work, usually as a dental assistant. Governmental support to optimally regulate oral health human resources is, according to most dental hygienists, an emphatic wish as a possible solution at national level.

Keywords: Lithuania; dental assistant; dental hygienist; regulation; workforce; workload.