Effective Communication: a tool for dental health promotion… Dr Colm Harney

Description

Dental assistants have a role to play in dental health promotion as part of a team delivering oral health services. Effective communication skills are key to addressing motivation, lifestyle change and prevention messages both at the individual and community level.
Strategies to build rapport and mutual understanding with patients will be discussed in order to deliver flexible, targeted and effective health promotion messages.

Learning outcomes:

Understand communication roles of the dental assistant.

Listen effectively in order to involve the patient and address their concerns.

Identify appropriate language and learning styles for use with the patient.

Deliver targeted and effective messages based on good relationships.