5 research outputs found
Patient education in dental medicine: A review of the literature
Introduction: In dental medicine, chronic diseases and chronic conditions (such as
chronic periodontitis, temporomandibular disorders, chronic orofacial pain) justify
patient education to selfâcare. This strategy of secondary or tertiary prevention,
even if officially recognised, is still less known compared to health education, a form
of primary prevention. The aim of the study was to make the point of recent studies
devoted to patient education. Thus, the purpose of the study was to give an updated
picture of patient education in odontology, describing, through an analysis of the international
literature from 2006 to 2016, its characteristics and development.
Methods: The main databases selected were: PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of
Sciences, DOSS, 302 articles published between 2006 and 2016 on patient education
among which four RCTs and a case study were analysed because of their rigorous
scientific quality.
Results: Patient education concerns chronic diseases and conditions also in the field of orthodontics.
This limited number of studies, showed that patient education in odontology
can bring real bioâclinic, cognitive, psychological and economic benefits to patients. Overall,
it allows patients to better understand their illness and treatment and, thus, to improve
their health behaviours and selfâcare techniques, which would reduce the treatment costs.
Educational interventions in odontology should constitute a component of patient education
in several chronic systemic diseases such as diabetes. It would be necessary to train
future practitioners in this field and to develop a scientific research on this practice