In a world where our words and our messages are constantly scrutinised, we’re taking a few minutes to think about how dental language is received by patients and how we can be more inspirational! It’s time to cut your ‘bad’ dental language and help patients see the happier side of dental care…
1. Dental health monitoring appointments
In dentistry, the regular exam appointment has developed over many years, but remember that patients only experience our attention once or twice a year. Their impressions of the value of this vital appointment are set over many years; too many remember the old 30-second, quick, low-cost check-up from childhood or early adulthood. If we continue using this word in a world of the much longer, more in-depth, more reported, more talked through examination, we constantly remind patients of their formative appointments so it’s no wonder patients think we’re overpriced and the appointment has little value. Give your exam experience a new name, and use it everywhere, e.g. Dental Health Exam (DHE), Dental Health Check (DHC), Oral Health Assessment (OHA), Oral Health Review (OHR), Mouth MOT and others mean so much more to the patient.
2. Plaque control or prevention
Please set up a swear box for the use of words like ‘scale and polish’ or ‘cleaning’ to describe what your hygienist does for patients! They do and help with so much more than this! Again, patients’ past experience of a ‘scale and polish’ is probably something quick, manual and the total responsibility of the dentist. Hygiene appointments now are more about learning skills and habits for controlling or disturbing plaque and occasionally a little bit of hard plaque removal. We can no longer denigrate the value of this appointment with the wrong description.
3. Programmes of plaque control (or prevention)
There is very rarely ‘one’ hygiene visit required. Most patients who could benefit from hygiene help should see their hygienist again every few months depending on need. So don’t let them think you’re only recommending one visit; talk about ‘programmes’ of hygiene or plaque control being normal and make sure they expect a recommendation for regular visits.
4. Oral cancer screening
Please talk about it – oral cancer is on the increase. You screen for it, you report on it, you advise on it, you refer it and occasionally you can save a life. More and more patients are no longer afraid to mention or be screened for the big ‘C’ word. In fact, they’re vastly reassured when they get their results from any other cancer screen, so if you don’t want to risk upsetting patients – how about giving them the results of your oral cancer screen instead of warning them you’re going to do it. ‘Your cancer screen looks normal’ provokes a much happier reaction and avoids any momentary panic than, ‘I’m now going to check you for cancer’.
5. Show you/help you/advise you on how to care for your mouth
Believe this. Your 64, 34 or even 14 year-old patients do not want any oral health ‘instruction’ or ‘education’ from you. They’ve been brushing their teeth for years so they don’t want anybody lecturing them and they don’t respond to dictatorships. So save yourself the negative reactions and ban these words from your practice. Instead, talk about ‘showing’ patients how to remove plaque effectively at home, or ‘advising’ them on techniques and skills, and even ‘working with’ them on getting the techniques right.
6.The inside of the mouth, the neck, glands and muscles…
‘Soft tissue’ is one very unfortunate phrase in dentistry. It means something very different to many female patients and at best, causes confusion. Even when patients don’t associate the examination of the soft tissues with a very different regular check, cervical cancer for example, they have no idea what the dental soft tissues are. On questioning, they wonder about the tongue, gums or the lips but rarely the surrounding structures of the mouth – so why not let them know what you’re really examining. Those dentists who talk about muscles, lymph glands, salivary glands, the floor and the roof of the mouth, the lips, the cheeks, the back of the mouth etc., attract more interest and respect from patients for a) the depth and breadth of the examination, b) for information regarding prevention and c) the value of the whole dental check experience!
7. Just
…the word that makes any concept pale into insignificance. For example, ‘just’ a minute indicates that the minute won’t actually be sixty seconds. ‘Just’ a little help lets us believe it won’t cost too much time and effort to do something. It’s ‘just’ a hygiene visit or ‘just’ a little filling encourages us to think the visit or the treatment actually isn’t important, and ‘just’ a receptionist undermines the considerable talent of juggling several tasks and being nice to people at the same. Please stop compromising your best advice with this callous, little, missile word. Try ‘especially important’ or ‘vital’ instead! Ditching this four letter word is not only for dentistry – it’s for all walks of life!
