ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Empathy is an attribute that plays an essential role in the dentist-patient therapeutic relationship, clinical care, and treatment adherence, along with providing other benefits. The main objective of this research was to establish the validity, reliability, and invariance of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy and then characterize the empathy levels of students and teachers at a dental school. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An observational and cross-sectional study analyzed a sample of undergraduate students and professors from the Universidad Andrés Bello Faculty of Dentistry (Chile) (n = 1727 and n = 267, respectively). The Empathy Scale for Health Professionals (HP) and the same scale for students (HPS) were applied. RESULTS: The Jefferson Empathy Scale presents adequate psychometric properties. The empathy measure has adequate reliability and construct validity, confirming a fit of the three-factor empathy model to the data. The measurement is invariant within the university campus, the sex of the student, and between teacher and student. Teachers present greater empathy than students except in the Perspective Adoption dimension. CONCLUSIONS: The Jefferson Empathy Scale is reliable, valid, and invariant among Chilean dental students and professors. Students do not differ from their professors in the cognitive component of empathy, but they present a lower score in the affective component and global empathy. It is inferred that students can develop the affective component of empathy in their interactions with their professors, increasing their overall empathy. Understanding and fostering empathy in dental students and professors can significantly improve patient care and treatment adherence and increase patient and dentist satisfaction.
ABSTRACT
Los trastornos de conducta alimentaria tienen efectos importantes sobre la salud oral destacándose entre estos por su alta prevalencia la anorexia y bulimia. Evaluar los efectos de la anorexia y bulimia sobre la periodontitis. Se realizó una búsqueda electrónica entre 2017 y 2021 en las bases datos Medline a través de Pubmed, Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source, Scopus, Springer y Biblioteca Virtual en Salud, donde con la estrategia de búsqueda "Anorexia OR Bulimia AND periodontal disease". Se recuperaron 101 registros potencialmente elegibles de los cuales luego de aplicar los criterios de elegibilidad se seleccionaron tres estudios de diseño observacional, cuyos resultados mostraron una asociación de la bulimia y anorexia con la incidencia de complicaciones orales en pacientes ambulatorios, donde la condición periodontal parece ser significativamente peor comparada con pacientes sanos emparejados por sexo y edad, siendo estos hallazgos de alta calidad metodológica o bajo riesgo de sesgo. La anorexia y la bulimia generan un alto impacto sobre la calidad de vida relacionada a la salud oral específicamente sobre el desarrollo de periodontitis. Sin embargo, se requieren de nuevos estudios que logren explicar en su totalidad esta posible relación.
Eating disorders have important effects on oral health, anorexia and bulimia standing out among them due to their high prevalence. To evaluate the effects of ano- rexia and bulimia on periodontitis. An electronic search was carried out between 2017 and 2021 in the Medline databases through Pubmed, Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source, Scopus, Springer and Virtual Health Library, where with the search strategy "Anorexia OR Bulimia AND periodontal disease". 101 potentially eligible records were retrieved from which, after applying the eligibility criteria, three observational design studies were selected, whose results showed an association of bulimia and anorexia with the incidence of oral complications in outpatients, where periodontal condition appears to be significantly worse compared to healthy patients matched for sex and age, these results being of high methodological quality or low risk of bias. Anorexia and bulimia have a high impact on health-related quality of life oral specifically on the development of periodontitis.However, it is required They want new studies that fully explain this possible relationship.