Role of Dental Hygienist in Treatment of Asian Immigrant Patients

This paper aims to identify the role of dental hygienists in determining effective oral and dental healthcare of patients belonging to Asian origin. It also explores the facilitators and barriers of dental healthcare in the country regarding the dental care of immigrants of Asian origin.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
ROLE OF DENTAL HYGIENIST IN TREATMENT OF ASIAN IMMIGRANT PATIENTS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Abstract
Objective: the primary aim of this paper was to identify the role of dental hygienists in
determining effective oral and dental healthcare of patients belonging to Asian origin. Further, it
would also identify the facilitators and barriers of the dental healthcare in the country regarding
the dental care of immigrants of Asian origin.
Method and review: a search strategy was conducted in Pub Med, Google scholar, and Medline
with keywords such as: ‘role of dental hygienists AND oral care AND Asian immigrants’,
‘Asian immigrants AND oral care AND dental OR oral hygiene’, ‘oral hygiene of Asian AND
immigrants in USA’, ‘dental hygiene among Asian and immigrants of USA’. Total 213 articles
were found within which with inclusion and exclusion criteria, total 5 articles were selected for
the discussion.
Findings: the 5 selected articles were collected for the discussion about the selected research
question and in this aspect; all the articles with peer review or strong primary research aspect
were included for the analysis. These five articles were most accurate and appropriate for the
analysis and hence, it was selected for the paper.
Conclusion: it was found that all the dental hygienists were unable to understand the harmful
lifestyle and diet preferences of Asian and immigrants due to which they lacked acculturation.
Thereby, their role in providing accurate and holistic care with implementation of
multidisciplinary team was crucial for dental and oral care of patients.

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Purpose
As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dental health is one of the crucial
aspects of the cumulative health and improper management of oral health could affect people and
their ability to maintain the health and wellbeing1. In the United States of America, dental health
is one of the crucial aspect affecting majorities of the population. As per the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention , more than 36% of the citizens in USA within age 22 t0 40 are suffering
from dental healthcare complications and majority of them are immigrants from Asian
countries1. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, within the year 2000 to 2015,
the rate of USA population has increased by 72% and oral and dental health is their primary
health concern1. However, there is a minimal research work has been performed to understand
the need and requirement of such population and the role of dental hygienist while working with
these patients. Hence, the primary purpose of this paper is to identify the role of dental hygienist
while caring for Asian immigrant people and identifying the barriers and facilitators present for
this aspects in the healthcare system of USA2.
Problem and thesis claims
The primary aim of this paper is to identify the needs and requirements of the dental
hygienists in caring for this specific migrant community and with that would identify the type of
competencies which would be required while working with community. Further, it would also
identify the type of resources that facilitates or hinders the dental hygienists while treating
patients of m=immigrant Asian origin. Further, it would also aim to identify the limitations due
to which the dental hygienists are unable to provide proper care to the immigrant community
from Asian origin. Therefore, the thesis statement of this paper would be: Identifying the role

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of dental hygienists in the care process of immigrant Asian community and with the
barriers and facilitators of the dental care process.
Methodology
The type of research study that was conducted for this assessment was a mixed method of
systematic review in which both the qualitative and quantitative review were conducted. In this
aspect, systematic review process is the appropriate method of identifying the role of dental
hygienists’ while caring for Asian immigrant patients because there is minimal or no data present
about such aspect and the current researches about the topic would help to identify the answers to
the research question of this assessment2. For this purpose, literatures from reputed and authentic
databases were collected and in this aspect the databases such as Google scholar, pub med and
Medline was used. The primary aim of this methodology was to collect primary or literatures that
answers or correlates with the research question of this paper. Hence, maintaining authenticity
and accuracy was among the primary aims of the research process. Due to this, the search was
limited to last 6 years and timeline filter of 2014 to 2019 was selected for this aspect.
The keywords that were selected for this aspect was related to the research topic and with
permutation and combination, these aspects were selected for this paper. The keywords were
such as: ‘role of dental hygienists AND oral care AND Asian immigrants’, ‘Asian immigrants
AND oral care AND dental OR oral hygiene’, ‘oral hygiene of Asian AND immigrants in USA’,
‘dental hygiene among Asian and immigrants of USA’. These keywords were searched in all the
three databases and with permutation and combination of all these aspects, related research
articles with relatable or appropriate research findings and aims were selected for the assessment.
Further, to determine the accurate choices of the research process, several inclusion and

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exclusion criteria were selected so that improper and inaccurate research articles could be
eliminated from the process. The inclusion criteria for this assessment was presence of primary
research articles, proper data collection and data analysis method and research articles in English
language so that acceptability of the research could be increased. Further, papers with descriptive
analysis, unidentified data collection and data analysis method, beyond 2014 were eliminated
from the research analysis. Hence, the accuracy of the collected data and their interpretation
increased.
After collecting several research articles related to process, all the data, both qualitative
and quantitative, were collected and depending on their type of study, the data were interpreted.
The first article which was chosen for the assessment, in which cross sectional study was
conducted so that role of ethnic differences in achieving healthcare for oral and dental health and
the role of dental hygienist in this aspect could be identified4. Another research article by was
selected in this aspect as the requirement and aspects of cultural competency in dental healthcare
and hygiene was mentioned5. Similarly, 5 research articles related to the topic were collected for
the data analysis and then after reviewing and observing all the research, statistical data
collection and analysis method were used for the assessment. Therefore, the type of study that
was collected for the assessment of the process was related to the governmental framework by
USA, qualitative research project, and case control analysis and cross sectional analysis, and the
qualitative review paper5.
Results
As per researchers, the ethnic background and lifestyle was one of the primary reasons
due to which majority of the professionals associated with dentistry were unable to control the

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risk of oral hygiene among patients. Further, it was noted that majority of the healthcare
professionals associated with dentistry in USA were unable to handle the acculturation mix and
hence, the effective interventions become non-significant in the absence of effective and accurate
communication strategy3. Further, it was also seen thorugh researches that with the oral
healthcare interventions, the dental hygienist should be able to provide dietary, lifestyle and
other important interventions so that effective results could be obtained4. Therefore, this was
identified as one of the crucial strategy that the dental hygienist should implement so that with an
multidisciplinary approach, proper care could be provided to the patients.
Conclusion and summary
While working with Asian or immigrants of the society, the healthcare professionals
especially the dental hygienists should be aware of the ethnic and lifestyle factors of the
immigrant community so that depending upon their habits and lifestyle, interventions could be
provided. This would work as a facilitator for the dental hygiene of the community and hence, it
is mentioned that majority of the dental hygienists, due to the lack of acculturation knowledge
and experience were unable to provide proper care to the patients. This paper therefore,
conducted a systematic review analysis so that the recent and latest research about the topic
could be selected and identification of the role of dental hygienist in the dental care of Asian
immigrants could be identified.

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References
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. FastStats. Cdc.gov.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/dental.htm. Published 2019. Accessed April 13, 2019.
2. Importance of content and format of oral health instruction to low-income Mexican
immigrant parents: A qualitative study. PMC. 2018;40(1):30-36.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5830177/. Accessed April 13, 2019.
3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Oral Health Strategic Framework, 2014–
2017. PMC. 2016; 131(2):242-257.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5830177/. Accessed April 13, 2019
4. Ethnic differences in oral health and use of dental services: cross-sectional study using the
2009 Adult Dental Health Survey. PMC. 2017; 17(1):17-19.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4942933/Accessed April 13, 2019
5. Oral health‐related quality of life in patients with disorders of nutrition. Wiley Online
Library. 2018; 17(1):7- 9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/joor.12754. Accessed April 13,
2019
.