Exploring the Opinion of Bulgarian Dentists and Students of Dental Medicine About the Role of Communication in the Treatment of “Difficult Patients” in the Dental Practice
Journal Title: Scholarly Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences - Year 2018, Vol 1, Issue 5
Abstract
Communication is a common subject in a variety of scientific disciplines and in medicine it means building a doctor - patient relationship, listening, gaining trust, empathy [1-3]. In recent years the reasons have been investigated why a patient follows a given dental therapy. The role of communication used during dental treatment - verbal and non-verbal - is the basis of these studies. Often in dental practice there are the so-called “difficult patients”. Their treatment is defined as a stress factor in everyday practice and a challenge for the dentist [1]. The dentist requires a special approach with these types of patients in order to have strong communication with the patient and to facilitate better therapeutic results and satisfaction with the treatment [3-5]. The aim of this study is to investigate the opinion of Bulgarian dental practitioners and dental students regarding the role of communication in the treatment of “difficult patients.”A survey among dentists from different ages and different specializations was conducted at the 15th International Scientific Congress of the Bulgarian Dental Society, 11-14. 06. 2015. 150 questionnaires were handed out, 132 were filled out. The questionnaire was based on a standardized questionnaire from a similar survey at the University of Ulm, Germany [6]. The study was also conducted among students at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, divided into 2 groups: the first included students from second year (before passing the training course in communication in the dental practice); the second group included students from the 3rd and 5th years (after the communication module). Out of 300 questionnaires, 136 were completed by the first group and 138 by the second group. The questionnaire included 25 questions: the first part contained questions related to socio-demographic characteristics of the research contingent, the second contained questions about communication techniques involved in the university education and assessment of the role of education and social environment on the relationship between patient and care provider. Some of the questions were based on the dentists’ and students’ own experience. They examine how often they encounter the so-called “difficult patients“, which patient groups they classify as “difficult” and how they manage to treat them. The questions were assessed with the Likert scale. The Mann- Whitney U test, alternative and graphical analysis, was utilized for the statistical analysis.
Authors and Affiliations
Vesela Aleksandrova
Keywords
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- EP ID EP582567
- DOI 10.32474/SJPBS.2018.01.000121
- Views 32
- Downloads 0
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