Definitions to be known in Community Dentistry

Community Dentistry which is an important subject to be learnt by a dental student in his 3rd year has been feared by all the students.

Community dentistry is all about knowing the Definitions right, and it is very important to know all the definitions in it as the way they were given and no changes are welcomed by the examiners.

So the only thing which we can do is by heart the whole definitions to score well in the exams.

Here i am going to jot down all the Definitions which are important for the exams:

COMMUNITY DENTISTRY:

Community Dentistry is a branch of Dentistry which deals with preventing disease, prolonging life & promoting physical & mental efficiency through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control of communicable infections, the education of individual in personal hygiene, the organization of medical & nursing services for the early diagnosis & preventive treatment of disease and the devlopment of the social machinery to ensure everyone a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of the health .

PUBLIC HEALTH: Defined by Winslow in 1920

The science and art of preventing deisease, prolonging life and promoting physical and mental efficienfy through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control of communicable diseases/infections, the education of the individuals in personal hygiene, the organization of the medical and nursing services for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease and development of social machinery to ensure everyone a standard of living, adequate for the maintainence of health, So organizing these benefits as to enable every citizen to realize his birth right of health and longevity.

HEALTH EDUCATION: Defined by national council of Preventive medicine in US

It is a process that informs, motivates and helps people to adopt and maintain health practices and lifestyles, advocates environmental changes as needed to facilitatethe goal and conducts professional training and research to the same end

HEALTH

Definition by World health organization (W.H.O):

“A State of complete Physical, Mental and Social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”

Oldest definition of Health:

” Absence of Disease”

Definition by Webster:

The condition of being sound in Body, Mind and Spiritespecially freedom from Physical Disease and Pain

DISEASE:

Definition by Webster:

A Condition in which bodys health is impaired, a departure from a state of health and alteration of the hiuman bodyinterupting the performance of vital functions.

Simplest Definition:

It is just the Opposite of Health

INFECTION:

The entry and development or multiplication of an infectious agent in the body of a man or animal.

NUTRITION:

The science of food and its relationship to health. It is concerned primarily with the part played by the nutrients in body growth development and maintainance.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: (WHO)

It is a specialized largest non political most prominent influential, multilateral health agency of United nations with its Head quaters in Geneva.

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL METHODS: (By John Last – 1988)

The study of the Disteibution and determinants of healthrelated states and events in populations and the application of this study to control health problems.

DENTAL INDEX: (By Russel A.L)

A numerical value describing the relative status of a population on a graduated scale with definite upper and lower limits which is designed to facilitate and comparision with other populations classified by the same criteria and methods.

PLAN: (Planning)

(By E.C Banfield) It is a Decision about a course of action.

It is a systemic approach to defining the problem, setting prioritiesdeveloping specific goals and objectives and determining alternative methods and stratergies for implementation.

SURVEY:

The method of collection of data, analyzing and evaluating the datain order to determine the amount of disease problems in a community and also identify cases that have not been identified.

EVALUATION:

Defined as the judgement of merit or worth about a particular person, place or thing. It is collection and analysis of information to determine the programme performance.

DENTAL AUXILLARY:

A Dental Auxillary or Ancillary is a person who is given responsibility by a dentistso that he or she can help the dentist render dental care, but who is not himself or herself qualified with a dental degree.

DENTURIST:

A Denturist is a member of the oral health care team who provides an oral health examination, takes impressions of the surrounding oral tissues, constructs and delivers removable oral prosthesis (Dentures and Partial Dentures) directly to the patient.

COMPREHENSIVE DENTAL CARE:

It is defined as the meeting of accumilated dental needs at the time a population group is taken into the programs and the detection and correction of new increments of dental disease on a semi annual or other periodical basis.

INCREMENTAL DENTAL CARE:

It is defined as a periodical dental care so spaced that increments of dental diseases are treated at the earliest time, consistent with a proper diagnosis and operatind efficiency in such a way that there is no accumilation of dental needs.

ETHICS: General meaning nothing special for dentistry

A part of Philosophy that deals with moral conduct and judgement.

DENTIFRICES:

A substance used with a toothbrush for the purpose of cleaning the acessible surfaces of the teeth. Dentifrices are available as tooth powders, tooth pasts, liquids and gels they are either cosmetic or therapeutic.

WATER FLOURIDATION:

The upward udjustment of flouride ion content of a domestic water supply to the optimum physiologic concentrations that will provide maximum protection against dental caries and enhance the appearance of the teeth with a minimal possibility of producing objectional enamel flourosis.

SOCIOLOGY:

The study of human interactions interrelations, their conditions and consequences.

PSYCHOLOGY:

The study of human behaviour- of how people behave and why they behave in just the way they do.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY:

It is concerned with the psychology of individuals living in human society (or) group.