The Video Interaction Guidance approach applied to teaching communication skills in dentistry

Abstract

Background: Patients with intellectual disabilities have poorer oral hygiene than the general population. These oral health problems may stem from the anxiety that these patients experience on visiting the dentist. Dental staff may also have difficulty in ensuring their patients understand the treatments they receive at the dentist. Making dentists aware of their communication strategy may combat some of the barriers that some patients with complex communication needs experience in the dental setting. The aim of this study was to report a newly applied training technique to the dental setting to examine dentist/patient communication.Materials and Methods: A dentist participated in Video Interaction Guidance to encourage more attuned interactions with their patients. The dentist was presented with short segments of video footage taken during an appointment with two patients with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties. Having observed their interactions, the dentist was asked to reflect on their communication strategies with the assistance of a trained VIG specialist.Results: The dentist successfully identified several verbal and non-verbal communication strategies they believed to be effective in reducing patient anxiety and relinquishing control to the patient.Where these strategies were omitted not used, the dentist recognised their strategy and gave positive reflections that may improve future interactions with their patients.Discussion: The VIG session was beneficial in this exploratory investigation because the dentist could identify when their interactions were most effective. Awareness of their non-verbal and verbal communication strategies and the need to adopt these behaviours frequently, were identified as key to improving outcomes for their patients. 3 IntroductionPatient compliance in health interventions can be encouraged if the clinician can communicate effectively with their patients (Freeman & Humphries, 2006). This can provide life-long benefits for patients, leading to increased health and wellbeing. Where communication falters, patients may have greater difficulty accepting their treatments and become disengaged from the decision making process (Hacking, Scott, Wallace, Shepherd & Belkora, 2013). This can lead patients to feel more uncertain and anxious about the outcome of their treatments, particularly with complex clinical procedures where communication may be more challenging. Dougall and Fiske (2008) suggest that the verbal and non-verbal cues that are used during communication do not occur equally. For example, 'words' are thought to take up 7% of our communication with others, whilst a persons' tone of voice and non-verbal cues (i.e. facial expressions and body language) contribute 33% and 60%, respectively. To ensure that a message has been understood, the communicator should ask the individual receiving the message whether they understand what is being communicated and reflect on their communication strategy. Where verbal and non-verbal signals are incongruent...

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