Evaluation of Health Promotion Dentistry Standards: A Case Study in Military Dental Clinic

Background and Aim: According to the clinical approach of standards of oral health system, designing specific standards is necessary to guarantee health promotion activities in the dental clinic. The aim of this study was to develop the standards of the health promotion dental center and to evaluate the performance status of a military dental clinic based on the standards. Methods: An applied descriptive study of consecutive (qualitative and quantitative) method was conducted in 2019. At the qualitative stage, the standards were collected and analyzed through library study and Delphi method. To obtain expert opinions, the draft of each standard axis including, title and standard definition, target expression; definition of sub-standards and criteria was provided to 11 participants through a Delphi questionnaire. In the quantitative phase for evaluating the studied center, the data were collected using the Health Promotion Dental Standards Checklist tool derived from the qualitative phase. The checklists were completed by the assessment team at the study center and their data were analyzed using SPSS-16 software. Results: The Health Promotion Dentistry Standards consisted of 6 axes of management policy, patient evaluation, patient notices and interventions, promoting a healthy workplace, continuity and collaboration, and 61 criteria were approved by experts by the content and standards of the two Delphi rounds. The quantitative results of the standards assessment were evaluated on the medium level. Among the standards, the highest score was for management policy evaluation, 68.62% of the total score. Patient evaluation was scored 66.66% on the axis, followed by patient notices and interventions scored 52.38% and continuity in treatment and participation scored 48.80% of the total score. The lowest score was 41.66% on promoting a healthy workplace. Conclusion: Health promoting standards are necessary for dental centers with a core health mission and to establish a mechanism for evaluating their performance in implementing health promotion programs. In order to improve the quality of oral health services, it is recommended that policymakers and managers of dental centers be effective in improving health-based dental services by establishing coherent policies within the framework of health promotion standards.