When a patient presents with a mouthful of major dental problems but is reluctant to accept treatment, what can you do to encourage case acceptance?\u00a0\u00a0 You can co-diagnose and cajole. You can soft-pedal and sugarcoat and offer to phase and stage. You can empathize and sympathize. While you try to educate, the patient chooses to ruminate and procrastinate. Your team can trot out a low cost loan and still be met with a moan. When the patient leaves with no appointment, you can shake your head, roll your eyes, and throw up your hands, but you cannot foist a choice on a patient.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a solution that many young dentists are timid about using but that most experienced dentists have learned to employ: speak plainly; tell it like it is. Patients come to your office because you are a licensed professional, an expert in dentistry. They may not like what you have to say, but at some level they want what they are paying for\u2014your professional opinion. Just as you have an ethical obligation to diagnose, you also have an duty to provide patients with the unvarnished truth.<\/p>\n
When the diagnosis is alarmingly clear and serious, the consequences of no treatment are that a bad situation will only get worse. Informed consent means that patients must be made aware ahead of time of the risks of treatment, but they also need to know\u2014and you should document your discussion in their chart\u2014the consequences to their health of their decision to ignore your advice.<\/p>\n
It is of course important that dentists continue the tradition of speaking to patients in a calm, professional, and respectful tone and showing compassion for the patient\u2019s dental issues. However, part of the trust that develops between doctor and patient is an underlying foundation of honesty.<\/p>\n
You can begin a difficult conversation by using these introductory phrases:<\/p>\n