Communication Skills for Dental Health Care Providers

Lance Brendan Young, Cynthia Rozek O'Toole, Bianca Wolf

• Publisher: Quintessence Publishing Co, Inc
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780867159363
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Dentistry

This evidence-based textbook presents the essential communication strategies clinicians should know to facilitate interaction with patients. With a focus on practical strategies instead of dense communication theories, the authors facilitate improved patient-provider communication and demonstrate how to elicit accurate patient information during the health interview, communicate effectively during examinations and procedures, and present preventive and restorative treatment plans from a patient-centered perspective.

This first section introduces key concepts that are fundamental to effective chairside communication with patients. Individuals who develop communication skills without first understanding communication or their audience may express themselves in a way that sounds insincere or even aggressive. Effective communicators understand how communication functions and can anticipate how it might function with a specific patient in context. This section provides an overview of health communication and its importance to patient-centered care (chapter 1), describes patients’ perceptions of dentistry (chapter 2), and discusses cultural influences that shape patients’ communication patterns (chapter 3).

1

Understanding Communication

Why Communication Matters

This initial chapter provides a rationale for studying patient-provider communication. However, this manual is focused on skill acquisition, so we feel it is best to present the rationale as a competence to master instead of simply listing the reasons why you should read our book. The rationale-as-skill concept becomes clearer to us the longer we teach dental students. Let us explain.

When people ask what we do, we reply that we teach patient-provider communication skills to future dentists. Usually, the responses fall into one of two categories. Some people are completely baffled and ask to know what we mean. Others make a lame attempt at humor: “It should be pretty easy to communicate with dental patients because they can’t talk back!” We have heard many variations of this theme and try to smile every time.

In truth, the fact that dental patients are often restricted in their verbal expression makes instruction in communication more important, not less so. Communication is far more than rattling off the latest sports scores while manipulating dental instruments in a patient’s mouth. The quality of patient-provider communication determines a wide range of outcomes, including satisfaction, treatment adherence, information comprehension and recall, and ultimately oral health.¹ For this reason, we have developed a skill of explaining and illustrating the importance of effective communication with dental patients. Those who work in a dental office—as a dentist, hygienist, assistant, or receptionist—should master this skill so that all of the practice’s employees will better understand the value of effective patient communication.

The fundamental communication lesson professionals must learn is that they cannot assume that everyone understands a message in the same way. To apply this lesson to the task at hand, we will explain and explore four key concepts: (1) communication, (2) health communication, (3) patient-provider communication, and (4) patient-provider communication in dentistry. For each concept, we will define the key term and analyze its implications and associated goals.

What Communication Is

Definition of communication

People from varying disciplines have defined communication in vastly different ways, from the mechanical definition that relates communication to audiology and broadcast transmission, to the philosophic definition that ties it to ontology and epistemology.^2,3 Between mechanics and philosophy is a social science discipline, which acknowledges both the concrete realities of message transmission and the varied ways humans interpret the meaning of messages. A good working definition has been provided by Stoner et al⁴: “Communication can be defined as the process by which people share ideas, experiences, knowledge and feelings through the transmission of symbolic messages.” Four aspects of this definition are particularly important for dental professionals to keep in mind: (1) communication is a process, (2) communication is multifunctional, (3) communication is multichanneled, and (4) communication is not always intentional.

Communication is a process

Often, communication is understood as individual expression. However, when people view communication as a singular act of self-expression, they risk treating other individuals as mere witnesses or audience members, rather than people with whom they are building a relationship. The working definition on page 4 clarifies that communication occurs only when two or more people are mutually involved in a process of sharing. Dental professionals must remember that effective communicators cannot rely on a script to build relationships.

Communication is multifunctional

The messages shared when providers and patients communicate perform many functions, often simultaneously⁵ (Table 1-1). Because communication is a process, achieving those functions depends on both the way a message is sent and the way it is received. Dental professionals must remain aware of their communication goals and listen to patients for indications that the goals are being achieved.

Table 1-1 Functions of communication

Function	Example
Psychologic	Establishing your professional role in patient introductions
Social	Cultivating patient trust through conversation
Informational	Explaining to patients the condition of their oral health
Influential	Urging patients to stop smoking

Communication is multichanneled

Too often, people think that communication is synonymous with speech, but messages are transmitted through multiple channels, both verbal (speech and writing) and nonverbal (appearance, gesture, and facial expression, among others). Those channels usually operate simultaneously. Dental professionals must remember that some channels are better suited to certain messages than others and that messages sent through one channel should not contradict messages sent through another.

Communication is not always intentional

Another misconception is that communication is restricted to messages we intend to send. While it is true that intentional communication is valuable, any behavior can transmit a message, regardless of intent. Even complete passivity—the refusal to act—communicates, leading some to argue that humans cannot help but communicate. Further, the definition suggested by Stoner et al⁴ acknowledges that we communicate with others through symbols (such as words or gestures), and symbolic messages are effective only insofar as they hold similar meaning for both sender and receiver. This is perhaps the hardest lesson: Dental professionals are constantly communicating, and they have limited control over how messages are received. However, the chance that patients will receive the intended message can be improved if dentists enhance their skills of expression and pa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• About the Authors
• Part I Communication Fundamentals
• Part II Interaction Skills
• Part III Communication During the Appointment
• Part IV Communication Challenges