As a people-oriented profession, dentistry requires strong communication abilities. Communication skills are indispensable to patient care for various reasons. For instance, they may include management of patient’s primary complaints, triage emergencies, setting a shared objective during treatment planning, and insurance of informed consent is acquired. Strong interpersonal communication abilities can enhance patients’ happiness and health results in the medical field. The application of the principles of successful interpersonal communication strengthens the clinician’s verbal and nonverbal communication abilities, conflict management skills, cultural sensitivity, perception accuracy, and teamwork by applying the principles of successful interpersonal communication.
Disagreements may impair stability and negatively affect team effectiveness and output. Effective conflict management depends on interpersonal communication. Conflict may emerge from the differences in opinion, values, and beliefs between medical personnel and patients. Conflict within a dentistry team may arise from how the workload is distributed, the quality of the relationships, or certain procedures and guidelines. Disputes of this nature have a direct negative influence on worker performance. This is important because degradation of the caretaker’s performance has a detrimental effect on patient care.
Ineffective conflict management is also linked to stress, illness, decreased work satisfaction, and distrust. Conflict may be managed well to foster progress and cooperation rather than be destructive. Interpersonal communication offers preventative measures to prevent conflict from growing to the point that it prevents comprehension and is perceived as a natural and beneficial aspect of group discussions. Assertiveness, anger control, conflict resolution, teamwork, and effective communication are five interpersonal skills that help manage conflict.
Assertiveness ensures that the message is delivered clearly and succinctly and gives it a definitive delivery. Patients gain from assertiveness when communicating their illness condition and treatment requirements since it reduces misunderstanding. Clinicians should describe what the other person has stated in their own words to encourage clarity and give patients the chance to do the same (Hong et al., 2020). This makes it easier to ensure that thorough knowledge is reached through collaboration. The teach-back approach is a term used to describe this interactive communication loop. The approach is recognized as a crucial patient safety strategy because, when applied correctly, it enhances communication accuracy and health outcomes (Hong et al., 2020). The best practice communication strategy that involves the patient in the conversation is the teach-back method.
As it takes away the hostile and unpleasant feelings from conflicts, anger management is a crucial component of conflict resolution. Positive relationships between coworkers and between patients and providers depend on effective conflict management. It is crucial to replace negative emotions with good ones to create a supportive environment in a team setting (DeVito, 2019). When discussing treatment options with patients, it is important to encourage good behavior and recognize any advancements in the person’s dental hygiene or self-care regimen.
Interpersonal communication emphasizes cooperation as the best, most efficient conflict management approach. Dental teams must see conflict as a series of issues that need to be resolved rather than as a contest to be won. Interpersonal communication recommends awareness, participation, and comprehension to advance equality and enhance dispute resolution (DeVito, 2019). Collaboration exercises promote provider accountability to assist in managing emotions correctly, separating the individual from the issue to highlight shared values and interests, and establishing shared goals.
Clinicians must explain to patients their present illness state, future preventative plans, therapy recommendations, and the prognosis following therapy in order to provide patients the information they need to agree to treatment. As with any patient-centered care, the acquisition of informed consent involves a number of information exchanges that provide the potential for misunderstanding (Burkert et al., 2021). Professionals in the field of oral health must spend time cultivating and maintaining interpersonal communication skills since professionalism demands efficient communication.
A frequent myth is that communication skills cannot be learned or improved by practice and training since they are intrinsic. Numerous studies have demonstrated that when communication training is included in health care education, communication effectiveness increases (Medendorp et al., 2021). These studies also linked more communication instruction to higher degrees of self-assurance while speaking with patients (Medendorp et al., 2021). Higher patient satisfaction levels were the result of this approach’s favorable impact on the patient’s confidence in the doctor. Maintaining relationships requires effective communication between the doctor and the patient. Patients appreciate healthcare professionals more when they take the time to listen and explain their treatment options (Medendorp et al., 2021). Communication loses its efficacy without practice, much as many other skill sets. Since interpersonal skills have been associated with higher patient satisfaction, provider-patient trust, better health outcomes, and patient compliance, oral health practitioners should spend time practicing them.
Personal interaction is crucial for teamwork and patient care. An interpersonal connection that values common objectives is forged when oral health specialists are sensitive to the particular circumstances of individuals. Since interpersonal interactions have a favorable impact on patient satisfaction and health outcomes, interpersonal communication and quality assurance are related concepts. This compassionate and patient-centered method not only enhances patients’ health results but also promotes patient accountability. Additionally, as interpersonal disagreement is resolved with solutions that benefit each individual, the collaborative character of interpersonal communication fosters the progressive development and expansion of the practice. Interpersonal communication is a key component of effective dental teams since it leads to healthier, happier patients as well as higher patient retention rates.
References
Burkert, V., Stoykova, M., & Semerdjieva, M. (2021). Communication skills teaching methods in dental education – a Review. Folia Medica, 63(1), 30–34.
Hong, Y.-R., Jo, A., Cardel, M., Huo, J., & Mainous, A. G. (2020). Patient-provider communication with teach-back, patient-centered diabetes care, and diabetes care education. Patient Education and Counseling, 103(12), 2443–2450.
DeVito, J. A. (2019). The interpersonal communication book. Instructor, 1, 18.
Medendorp, N. M., van den Heuvel, L. M., Han, P. K. J., Hillen, M. A., & Smets, E. M. A. (2021). Communication skills training for healthcare professionals in providing genetic counseling: A scoping literature review. Patient Education and Counseling, 104(1), 20–32.