Improved communication = understanding + treatment acceptance + satisfaction
Have you ever been mid-way through an explanation to a patient and realized they don’t truly understand? Is it then difficult to convince that patient to accept the treatment plan?
It’s a worrying situation when patients do not understand treatments or remember home-care instructions – and this situation occurs more often than dentists believe1. It’s also difficult to guarantee treatment compliance when a patient’s willingness to accept and follow the dentist’s instructions is impacted by personality, learning style and other variables2.
Good home care improves treatment success
It’s often suggested that dentists use the “three-peat” method of communication, where information is verbally repeated three times to improve acceptance rates. Other studies show that patient understanding and satisfaction improves more with multimedia3 and post-treatment follow-up – photos, videos and explanations in the clinic and send home via e-mail.
The good news is that non-interruptive extra-oral dental photography can be used with every patient without adding to the treatment duration. Improving your treatment acceptance and patient satisfaction is one hands-free click away.
In this 3-part series, we will introduce the basics of dental photography:
- Part 1: Dental Photography Equipment (August 23, 2022)
- Part 2: The Basic Photograph Views (coming August 31, 2022)
- Part 3: The Patient Experience (coming September 7, 2022)
References:
- Misra, S., Daly, B., Dunne, S., Millar, B., Packer, M., & Asimakopoulou, K. (2013). Dentist-patient communication: what do patients and dentists remember following a consultation? Implications for patient compliance. Patient preference and adherence, 7, 543–549. https://doi.org/10.2147/PPA.S43255
- Tachalov, V. V., Orekhova, L. Y., Isaeva, E. R., Kudryavtseva, T. V., Loboda, E. S., & Sitkina, E. V. (2018). Characteristics of dental patients determining their compliance level in dentistry: relevance for predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine. The EPMA journal, 9(4), 379–385. https://doi.org10.1007/s13167-018-0152-8
- 3. Pei, D., Liang, B., Du, W., Wang, P., Liu, P., He, M., Lu, Y. (2017). Multimedia patient education to assist oral impression taking during dental treatment: A pilot study. International Journal of Medical Informatics, (102), 150-155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.03.016.
