The dental hygienists in Sweden and Portugal: A comparative study

Aims and Objectives: The aim of the present study was to identify the dental hygienists (DHs)' working areas and compare these findings between Sweden and Portugal. Materials and Methods: A web-based questionnaire was sent by E-mail to all 2943 members of the Swedish DH Association and 381 members of the Portuguese DH Association. The questionnaire contained questions about; number of years of work, which patient groups they worked with, if they had got sufficient knowledge from the education and what different tasks they worked with. Independent sample t -test, relative risk, and logistic regression analysis were used as statistical methods. Results: The response rate for Sweden was 31% ( n = 923) and the corresponding figure for Portugal was 53.5% ( n = 204). The most common tasks for the DHs, in both countries, were to diagnose and treat patients with periodontitis and to diagnose and perform caries prevention. In Portugal, 86.5% worked with orthodontic patients compared to 32.3% in Sweden ( P = 0.001). The logistic regression analysis showed that there was a 25% ( P = 0.02) higher probability that Swedish DHs took more X-rays and 38% ( P = 0.042) probability that they had more communications skills compared to the Portuguese DHs. Conclusion: The DH profession in Sweden and Portugal was overall quite similar. Despite a few local differences, both the academic education and scope of practice corresponded well between the countries. The few discrepancies could be explained by differences in legislations in each country.