Digital Communication Skills for Teledentistry
Part 2: Building Bricks: Teledental Skills
The final part of our series on Teledental Skills examines the importance of effective communication skills when approaching teledental cases. To learn about Digital Diagnostic Skills, check out Part 1.
Teledentistry is for communicators — not for short-handers. Teledental communication must be as effective as an in-office visit, if not more so. Striving to communicate with clarity can overcome the physical limitations of teledentistry and improve treatment understanding and acceptance.
Patients who reach out using teledentistry are often at risk. They could be in a remote location, have mobility difficulties, or simply be terrified of the dental office. It’s worth keeping this in mind when you speak to patients digitally. They need an extra explanatory sentence to hammer home the importance of following a recommendation.
We have a number of principles we encourage all teledentists to hold dear and stay informed by best practices in medical communication:
- Treat patients with integrity, compassion and concern.
- Maintain a sensitive and understanding attitude with them.
- Effectively communicate with patients by reading the information they submit alongside their visual submissions, and pay close attention to their reasoning for getting in touch.
- Take account of their views and answer their questions with honesty.
- Give patients the information they want or need to know in a way they can understand.
- Exercise good judgement and communicate clinical advice you deem to be sound, guided in your practice by the best evidence.
To give effective teledental advice, it is important to review your words to ensure it meets each of these three criteria:
Patient readability: ensure the language you use can be read and understood by the patient. We always recommend against using unfamiliar expressions, acronyms or numbering systems when speaking to patients about their oral health.
Patient understanding: ensure your message has improved the patient’s understanding of their oral health.
Patient actions: ensure your message includes clear actions for the patient to take, so they know what they can do to improve their oral health.
Teledental apps like Toothpic allow dentists to send their patients a comprehensive and easy to understand report of their overall oral health along with answering specific questions and concerns they have.
Your Dentist In Your Pocket
Teledentistry on a smartphone
“My dad is a dentist, and while working late one night, I was
concerned about a gap I’d noticed in my lower gum, so I called him
to ask what I should do. Of course, he couldn’t help over the phone
but suggested I send him a photo. On doing so, he called straight
back with a diagnosis and recommendation and mentioned how
the quality of the photo was as good as those taken by professional
dental cameras. That’s when I realized how much technology could
help dentists and patients. The original Toothpic was born.”
Mark Moore (Toothpic CEO)
What is Toothpic?
With Toothpic, patients take 1–6 photos of their mouth, teeth, and gums on their smartphone. Along with some dental history and habit questions, this is sent to a Toothpic Network dentist licensed in their state. The dentist annotates the patient’s photos, and this is returned to the patient as a dental report in the Toothpic app.
How can I get involved in the dental network?
Toothpic has a dental network across the United States and often experiences demand for new dentists in certain states. Signup at www.oraleye.com/join/ and one of our representatives will be in touch or reach out to the Network Manager on network@toothpic.com to express your interest.
Did you find this piece useful? What more would you like to know? Let us know in the comments how your experience has been with social media and get in touch with us if you need any more advice.
