Data Driven and Data Understood (Dental Confidence and Connection Course)

One thing that I've found over the years is how we present procedures and needs to our patients in a way that can foster their own choice ability is really, really critical. You've heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, and sure it is. But pictures, in my mind, x-rays are not pictures to a patient. No, they work well for us because we look at them all day long. Now, certain patients may be familiar with x-rays, but in my experience, a high-resolution 3D intraoral scan or photograph goes a lot farther than an x-ray where you pull up an x-ray. See the little dark spot? What do you mean with all the other dark spots? All the other spots match that up? I don't get it. Seek first to understand, as we've talked about before, empathy and agility, and then next to be understood. Now, the best way to be understood is with clarity and communication. And again, more visual people than some of the blind or, you know, mostly blind, which some of us in the game tend to come in that way. So visions help. And descriptors that don't get in the way of the visuals are also very helpful. So provide visuals in the form of photographs. Right? Intraoral photos. High quality intraoral photos. Not blurry, countless high-resolution intraoral photos. Take good photos so it's not a bad situation. And then good communication about what you're seeing. So, Mary, do you see this? Tumor 19. This is on your lower left. Do you see that the tumor might be green to that, you know, picture? It's not, you know, white. Do you see the tumor? There's a lot of silver here. You can see that. Look at these little lines. These are cracks. And then, as you see, the darkness that goes over the cheek side of that cheek. That's another crack. And look how dark that is, coupled with this little white spot here and the dark line that's around it. That's all tooth decay coupled with some fractures that are happening there. Can you see what I'm seeing? And that was three sessions of silence. That's, you know, that's a good opportunity for a patient to really think. I usually suggest giving a little bit more time for them to think. You know, maybe so often we'll show them something, but we don't give them time to digest what we've shown them. So a few seconds of silence, whether you ask them a question in a new way or just, you know, give them some time to think. You know, we don't do these things all day long in our patients. So providing high-quality data coupled with time to assimilate that data allows, again, a deeper connection, better collaboration, but we have to communicate clearly. Clearly, simply, concisely communicate with our patients. And so photographs are helpful. If you have some sort of an intraoral scanner, scan and pull those up. These things go so far. One other thing that I'd suggest is when talking about procedures and processes, the problems in getting to the recommendation procedures is to have relevant data that you can share with a patient in the right situation in the right way. You know, we know that a tooth that's left untreated ultimately may turn into a toothy tooth. Perhaps your tooth may or may not be fixable. There's some sort of a toothache or an infection, both of which, both of those options may end up leading to the tooth not being able to be extracted. And also, all of the bacteria that causes tooth infection has been found in heart attacks and strokes. And we know that it increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, Alzheimer's, dementia, you know, any number of things that are now demonstrated scientifically in our literature. So knowing these things and being able to present them appropriately, not in a manipulative or overboard way, but sharing the relevant data of what's happening. So a patient then can be authorized and empowered to exercise their choice ability, moving forward with care according to their agency and time of treatment. Relevant data presented in the right way with photographs, photos, scans, and minimizing those x-rays that tend to be completely possible. Now if you have a 3D rendering and you're talking about dental implants, that may be a little different. But to present data in a clear way so that it's helpful in the hospital, a kind of an empowered choice, not created gigantic, you know, confusion. Empowering choice, clarity of knowledge.