Dental hygienists in multidisciplinary health care

The evolving roles and responsibilities of the dental hygiene profession are placing very different demands on its members. Collaboration with other health professionals will become necessary as the profession moves forward into more interdisciplinary settings. The purpose of this paper is to describe a recently published study involving collaboration between dental hygienists, physician assistants and physical therapists. Multidisciplinary teams comprised of representatives from each of the three professions participated in both a simulated problem-based case assessment and a real life patient assessment. Results showed favourable learning experiences by all three disciplines which could serve as a potential model for future multidiscipline projects. Collaborations between health professionals have the potential to enhance client care and ultimately improve their quality of life.