Educating Patients

Here's the thing.  We go to school and learn to become dentists.  How does this work?  Well, we sit in classrooms for hundreds of hours, then we practice on some fake teeth, then we start doing the real thing.

So what happens when it comes to treating patients? Well, we think back on our education and we make decisions for treatment based on what we know.  However, I truly believe that it's easy to put blinders on and forget to educate the patient on one basic question:

What can I do to prevent all this?

A strange question to think about because for the dentist, we essentially rely on the work of bacteria in the oral cavity to keep us working!  But our ultimate goal is to put the patient's oral cavity in such a position, and to educate the patient properly, that they can go home and maintain their oral health optimally for... ever!  We are humans so this often doesn't happen, but I want to emphasize patient education today.

I spend a lot of time on patient education.  I tell them how carcinogens in cigarette smoke can alter a cell's ability to properly duplicate itself; I tell them how small areas of demineralization on their tooth are in a fragile balance between repair and destruction; I tell them that calculus is a structure that a village of bacteria built as a way to protect itself so that it can go out and invade our mouths.

It's always exciting when new and highly applicable patient education materials arrive and I had the privilege of finding out about one just a week ago.  It really is a wonderful balance of talking on a level the patient understands without using fluffy words and bogus language that doesn't hit on the severity of the issue.

Here's a little word from Southcommon Dental on the sweet infographic they've created that you're free to use with your patients!

---Most people know that if you don't take care of your teeth, you will eventually get cavities and have to pay an extra visit or two to the dentist.  But what is actually going on in your mouth?  Why do cavities form when you stop taking care of your teeth?  Southcommon Dental has put together a dental infographic that delve into this topic and teaches you why not brushing and flossing ultimately leads to this problem.  Check it out!