Summary
The importance of trust between patients and healthcare experts, particularly professionals representing a specific healthcare field, is often underrated. However, people trusting in a certain medical profession often defines the extent to which they take pieces of advice dispensed by experts in question into account (Yuan et al., 2020). Consequently, the extent of trust in a certain healthcare profession determines the levels of health literacy in the target population and the extent to which the demographic in question is willing to accept the promoted healthy lifestyles (Yuan et al., 2020). The observed phenomenon applies to areas such as dentistry, which might seem as less significant than other healthcare areas, yet also plays a vital role in shaping people’s health by maintaining their digestive system running (Yuan et al., 2020). Although previously low levels of public trust in the dental profession were shaped largely by individual experiences, trust has been gradually increasing owing to patient education and communication.
Background
Remarkably, a noticeably positive change in the levels of trust toward the dental profession has already occurred when compared to previous decades. Recent studies report that the trust in dental profession has risen substantially, mostly due to the advances in healthcare quality and the prioritization of patients’ comfort (Maslak et al., 2019). The described findings can be attributed to a significant progress in the promotion of patient-centered care (Maslak et al., 2019). In other words, multiple issues that used to be the core factor in preventing people from actively seeking dental healthcare services have been identified after listening to patients’ concerns (Maslak et al., 2019). However, even with the specified progress rate, the extent of patients’ trust for dentists and the dental profession, in general, could still be improved.
Assessment
The process of assessing the levels of trust in the dentist profession among general audiences is vital in designing strategies to promote regular visits to the dentist and, therefore, prevent multiple health issues form occurring among general audiences. At the same time, measuring the exact change concerning the perception of dentistry a as a profession, as well as people’s overall attitude to it, is quite complicated due to the lack of clarity concerning the measurement instrument (Song et al., 2020). Specifically, it is not quite clear as to what criteria should be included to evaluate a shift in people’s trust toward the field in question.
Causes
Arguably, several parameters can be introduced into the assessment to determine the change in the levels of trust and the nature of the alterations observed among general audiences. The issue of personal comfort, as well as the common sense of fear that a lot of people experience when visiting a dentist, should be incorporated into the evaluation first. Indeed, several studies report that the sense of fear is quite a common occurrence not only among children, but also in adults in regard to visiting a dentist (Parmar et al., 2018). The feeling foe far described above can be ascribed to the feeling of pain that is typically associated with dentistry and has been perpetuated in popular culture (Parmar et al., 2018). Therefore, changes in the extent of fear toward dentistry-relate procedures can be seen as the main causes of a positive shift in the levels of trust toward dentists.
In turn, the drop in the range of negative and painful sensations experienced during dentistry-related procedures should be connected to the technological advancements made in the specified field over the past several decades. Indeed, with the introduction of a broader range of anesthesia options, as well as more advanced tools, a range of dentistry-related procedures have become significantly less painful. Though the concept of painless dentistry, unfortunately, is not in existence yet, options provided by computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) have shaped a range of procedures that used to be exceptionally painful, minimizing the duration and the extent of negative experiences (Koyama et al., 2022). The described tools have been undeniably helpful in shaping people’s perceptions of dentists and their attitude toward the profession.
Furthermore the digital tools in question have facilitated greater transparency in the process of addressing patients’ needs, as well as forwarded a patient-dentist conversation. Specifically, the CAD and CAM technology mentioned above, as well as imaging opportunities, including CT-scans with better precision and resolution, has made it possible to involve patients into the planning process. Specifically, with the help of the specified techniques, dentists have been enabled to introduce patients to the available treatment options by demonstrating the exact source of a health issue and the effects that the proposed intervention is expected to produce (Koyama et al., 2022). Thus, it is believed that open communication between dentists and their patients, as well as active involvement of patients into the process of treatment planning and design, have led to a rise in the level of trust toward the profession f a dentist among general audiences.
Indeed, numerous researches allow asserting that communication between patients and healthcare providers leads to increased levels of trust between the two. Specifically, the paper by Liu et al. (2021) confirms that the honest dialogue between patients and health experts causes a rise in patients’ trust. Specifically, the study results indicate that patient-doctor communication is “a key underpinning to trustworthy patient–physician relationships particularly when the public was flooded with a mixture of health information” (p. 8). Therefore, with the increase in the range and variety of opportunities for patients to communicate effectively with dentists, the increase in the degree of trust toward the latter and their profession is quite expected.
Specifically, CAD/CAM have made digital modeling possible, allowing dentists to determine the source of a health problem accurately and perform the required procedure with highly increased precision, thus, minimizing the extent of pain (Koyama et al., 2022). As a result, the idea of visiting a dentist as a process that is excessively painful and extraordinarily unpleasant has been gradually replaced by the perception of the process as slightly inconveniencing yet quite tolerable (Koyama et al., 2022). The descried change should be considered as one of the core factors in an increase in people’s trust toward dentists and their profession.
The importance of trust that patients have for the profession of a dentist is particularly, important at the time when the existing sources of available information are flooded with unverified data that often turns out to be false. Specifically, social media, while being a useful tool for promoting patient literacy and encouraging target audiences to gain knowledge about health management, including the issue of dentistry, is also filled with misinformation and harmful myths about dentistry (Hong & Oh, 2020). The fear and concerns that patients develop after familiarizing themselves with unverified and downright false information causes the levels of trust toward dentists and dentistry as a profession to drop among the target population (Hong & Oh, 2020). Therefore, campaigns addressing the problem of low health education among prospective patients must be implemented.
Plan
Apart from ensuring that people address dentists when needed, the lack of trust in the dental profession often leads to patients being late for the required services. To address the specified problem, one must introduce a policy aimed at increasing awareness among members of the target population. Specifically, according to the policy in question, dental experts and organizations will have to provide patients with the required resources for increasing their health literacy, as well as detailed schedules for visits to a dentist. Additionally, dental experts will have to contact their patients if they miss their visits. The specified measure will help prevent cases of dental issues aggravating o the point where they start affecting other systems within the patient’s body.
Though the currently low levels of public trust in dental profession have been shaped mostly by individuals’ negative experiences and extrapolated onto the dental profession, in general, a positive trend has emerged as a result of patient education and communication. Furthermore, a generally positive shift can be observed in the recent change in the extent of trust toward representatives of the deal profession compared to previous decades. Therefore, one could argue that, with a rise in the quality of communication between healthcare experts and patients, as well as the focus on patient satisfaction and a patient-oriented approach, the extent of trust toward the dental profession and its representatives has increased. Nonetheless, further positive change can be made once the quality of patient education and communication between healthcare providers and the target audience increases/.
References
Hong, H., & Oh, H. J. (2020). The effects of patient-centered communication: Exploring the mediating role of trust in healthcare providers. Health Communication, 35(4), 502-511.
Koyama, S., Izumita, K., Sato, N., Tagaino, R., Hatakeyama, T., Shiraishi, N., Yoda, N., Igarashi, K., Takahashi, T., & Sasaki, K. (2022). Medical-Dental Collaboration and Interprofessional Training for Maxillofacial Diseases at Tohoku University Hospital. The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine, 256(3), 225-234.
Liu, P. L., & Jiang, S. (2021). Patient-centered communication mediates the relationship between health information acquisition and patient trust in physicians: A five-year comparison in China. Health Communication, 36(2), 207-216.
Maslak, E., Sokolovich, N., Fomenko, I., Ogrina, N., Naumova, V., & Ocokina, A. (2019). The patient and the dentist. Trust and consent to treatment. Journal of International Pharmaceutical Research, 46(1), 613-621.
Song, Y., Luzzi, L., & Brennan, D. S. (2020). Trust in dentist‐patient relationships: mapping the relevant concepts. European Journal of Oral Sciences, 128(2), 110-119.
Yuan, S., Freeman, R., Hill, K., Newton, T., & Humphris, G. (2020). Communication, trust and dental anxiety: a person-centred approach for dental attendance behaviours. Dentistry Journal, 8(4), 118.