Identifying core competencies for community oral health practice among dental hygienists: a scoping review
Su-Kyung Park, Jung Yun Kang, Sun-Jung Shin, Sun-Mi Lee, Nam-Hee Kim · 2026
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Description
Su-Kyung Park and co-authors map the core skills dental hygienists need for community oral health work. Community practice asks hygienists to run prevention programs for whole populations and work across professions, well beyond chairside care. Existing skill frameworks stress clinical tasks, leaving community work without its own integrated map.
Following scoping review methods, the team synthesized thirty-eight sources in three layers: cross-professional frameworks, national dental hygiene frameworks, and community practice literature. Skills were kept only when at least two layers agreed. Eight domains emerged, led by health equity practice grounded in social determinants of health, and population-level program planning, delivery, and evaluation. The map gives educators and employers a shared target for training community-focused hygienists.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Su-Kyung Park, Jung Yun Kang, Sun-Jung Shin, Sun-Mi Lee, Nam-Hee Kim |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 65 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |