Handling Patient Expectations
“The most important time is the time we dedicate to patients.” Isabella Rocchietta | UK Honorary Senior Research Associate, department of Periodontology, UCL Eastman Dental Institute, London Private Practice London. www.ID2courses.com Interview conducted by Marjan Gilani
Giving bad news isn’t easy. Getting bad news is even harder. How can clinicians ease understanding and support patients when the risks of complication are high?
Dr. Rocchietta: I never promise perfection, even though I know the results could be close to perfect. Perfection and 100% success don’t exist in medicine, by definition. Instead, I try to under promise and over deliver. For example, when a case demands high esthetics, I’d rather say that we will strive to achieve “natural harmony” than “perfect results.” We need to evaluate the initial conditions, make sure that the diagnosis has been performed thoroughly, and subsequently inform the patient about all the risks and possibilities. A common mistake in clinics is that patients come in
“When we take the time to educate patients, they are much more compliant.”
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with a missing or fractured tooth, and we start the therapy by focusing only on that problem, without looking at the surrounding issues. Obviously, this is even more important when we treat a referred, failed case. We should always stay humble, understand all the risks of the procedure we perform, and explain to the patient why the situation could have a less favorable outcome. Patients get tired of all the treatment processes, and the financial stakes are high. Patients should get all of this information, including the risks, several days before surgery in a written consent form. This way they have time to consider and understand the procedure and tend to have more realistic expectations.
Does this mean you talk about technical complications? How do you help patients, who are not medical professionals, understand? Patients are different. Some have full trust and do not want to hear any explanation, and some search for cases online and watch YouTube videos be-
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Dr. Rocchietta, patients love a miracle. What do you do when you know that the results patients expect cannot be achieved?
