Effective Dental Communication, Appointments, And Dental Procedures

Barriers to Effective Communication in Dental Care

1.Various barriers may obstruct the path of effective communication among the patient and its dentist which involves cultural differences which may prevent either of the stakeholders to express completely. Another barrier may be speech or listening difficulty from any of the counterparts that may prevent proper communication. Differences in perceptions and viewpoints may also prevent easy communication. Another barrier may include various distraction or lack of attention and interests due to personal and financial crisis which may make the patient restless for which dentist fail to initiate a strong communication (Cole, 2014).

Dentists try to feel the pain of the patients and understand their problems so that they can provide empathy. Secondly they should try to maintain dignity of the patients and thereby be empathetic towards their wishes and demands. Moreover they should try to engage themselves in friendly conversation rather than being strictly professional so that patients feel that the dentists are empathetic towards them.

2.In order to respond appropriately and thereby respond effectively, the dentist should first establish an effective communication. The first step should include effective listening of the patient’s problem and noting where the patient is stressing on. Only after listening to the entire query of the patient, dentist should start solving the query in easy terms so that the patient does not get confused or is not able to understand anything. After proper communication gets initiated and flows accordingly, main concern of the patient is noted or even cross questions can be done by dentist to increase the clarity of the conversation. Appointments should be made after enquiring the patient’s wishes and noting them down, the dentist would accordingly provide the patient with the correct date, time and venue (Karp, 2014). Slips would be given later after noting names in appointment books. Otherwise if done vice versa, it may lead to arrival of more patients at a same time. One of the most important codes of professional conduct is maintain confidentiality of patients and every important step should be followed by him to maintain dignity and privacy of patients.

3.The entire process for making a new set of dentures usually requires 5 to 6 appointments until the main important product is received. Each of the five appointments will be fixed approximately around three weeks apart. In the first appointment, it is necessary to take impressions of the upper and the lower jaw, a special tray needs to be made up in accordance to the jaw so that it fits well. The second appointment mainly deals with the taking of secondary impression that is taken inside the special tray (Queen, 2016). This is done to make the secondary impression more accurate than the primary one. After that, it is sent to laboratory where the specialists can make wax rims according to them. The third appointment is necessary for the doctor to fit in the wax rims until he is happy with the height, shape and the way they fit inside the patient’s mouth. A silicone based material should be used by dentist to take a bite record of the patients. The dentist would take a shape or shade for new dentures. The fourth appointment will make the patient try the dentures that would be set in wax. With the wish of the patient, denture shape, size and colour can be changed accordingly. Dentures again travel back to laboratory. On the final appointment, final denture is given to patient who can be adjusted in the appointment (Levesque, Levine & Bedos, 2016).

4.Two important types of appointment should be maintained in a dentist clinic. The first would be the central appointment system which is necessary for the professional system of administrative work that included the answering of telephonic inquiries and their subsequent records about the appointments and also facilitates coordination of cancellations and changes. It also acts as a guide for getting patient’s records from files in advance of the day’s appointments (Welsh & Darby, 2014). On the other hand, the individual appointment book helps the dentist or specialist who knows the patient needs thereby workout mutually satisfactory appointments.

5.The dentistry staff should be very sophisticated and polite in his approach to the patient making him know about the resources that get wasted and also the precious time of the appointed doctors who can at that time serve a very needy patient who could not get appointment due to this patient. After properly making him know the losses, provide a last time warning in a soft tone telling it would not be possible for them to do it the third time by far the company’s policy (Imbery et al., 2016). Moreover, while fixing the appointment confirm about the dates. If the patient remains unsure of a day, one should totally skip the day and look for a fresh day with which the patient is confidant. This would lessen the chance of cancelling again. Special notes are made beside the patient name in the appointment book so that such patient can be easily remembered if certain unwanted situation arises again.

6.Refer to your Australian Schedule of Dental Services and Glossary, and allocate the correct item number to the dental service listed below

FDI	Description	Item Number
42	MI Composite restoration	535
16	B class V GIC restoration	553
36	MODB Amalgam restoration	511-515
48	Surgical extraction no bone removed	322
25	Root CanalObturation	417, 418
46	Porcelain Fused to metalcrown	673
26	Fissureseal	161
25	Removal of crown	655
34	Root planning and subgingival curettage pertooth	222
11	Indirect toothVeneer	583

Item Number	Description
711	Complete maxillary denture
121	Topical application of remineralisation and cariostatic agents
111	Removal of dental plaque and stain
311	Removal of tooth and parts of it
415	Complete chemo-mechanical preparation of root canal – one canal
071	Preparation of model from an impression
533	Adhesive restoration – three surfaces – posterior tooth – direct
615	Artificial crown constructed with metallic base.
643	On a retainer’s abutment tooth, artificial replacement of tooth is joined by indirect provision
943	The patient t is made to inhale sedative gas with oxygen while ongoing treatment

Symbol	Description
F/F	full maxillary denture over full mandibular denture
/	per
UE	Upper end
T/A	Toothbrush abbrasion
B/T	Baby tooth
MO	Messial occlusal
I	incisal
P	palatal
RCF	Root canal filling
-/P	Mandibular partial denture

Reference:

Cole, A. (2014, October). Oral Literacy Demand in the Dental Clinic. In 2014 AAP National Conference and Exhibition. American Academy of Pediatrics.

Imbery, T. A., Greenfield, K., Diaz, N., Janus, C., & Best, A. M. (2016). Quantifying appointments, treatment time, impressions, and diagnostic data of cases staffed by general dentists and prosthodontists in a dental school clinic. Journal of Dental Education, 80(10), 1219-1228.

Karp, J. (2014, October). A 10-Step Approach for Exceeding 95% Dental Office Appointment Attendance By Uninsured Children. In 2014 AAP National Conference and Exhibition. American Academy of Pediatrics.

Lévesque, M., Levine, A., & Bedos, C. (2016). Humanizing Oral Health Care through Continuing Education on Social Determinants of Health: Evaluative Case Study of a Canadian Private Dental Clinic. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 27(3), 971-992.

Queen, A. N. (2016). Evidence-based Dentistry and Its Role in Caring for Special Needs Patients. Dental clinics of North America, 60(3), 605-611.

Walsh, M., & Darby, M. L. (2014). Dental hygiene: theory and practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.