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Rapid Fire Chat of Real Life Dental Scenarios and Solutions
12 Plays4 hours ago
About the Hosts:
Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor are both dental professionals navigating their careers after graduation. Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor are hosts of the podcast "Beyond Graduation," where they engage in discussions about the challenges and experiences in the early years of dental practice. Both have a commitment to patient care, professional development, and sharing insights to foster growth within the dental community.
Episode Summary:
In this episode of "Beyond Graduation," hosts Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor dive into rapid-fire dental patient scenarios, exploring how they would handle various situations with professional finesse. The conversation kicks off with the dynamic duo discussing approaches for dealing with older patients inquiring about their experience, unexpected post-treatment evaluations, and handling emergencies during off-hours. Their witty banter and insightful advice form an engaging narrative about the day-to-day interactions faced by new dental practitioners.
In the latter part of the episode, Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor shift gears to dealing with more complex patient interactions —from challenging cases of disregarded oral hygiene to handling parental disputes over child dental care. Their discussions across these situations are filled with practical tips and empathetic communication strategies, effectively imparting wisdom on patient management while highlighting the importance of teamwork in dental practice. A notable theme throughout is the emphasis on patient education and setting realistic expectations about dental care outcomes.
Key Takeaways:
- Humor can be a useful tool in establishing patient rapport, especially with anxious patients.
- It's essential to clearly communicate the importance of maintaining dental work, addressing patient misconceptions about treatments.
- Handling emergencies promptly is a critical part of dental practice, even if it means addressing issues outside regular hours.
- Effective communication is necessary when dealing with divorced parents concerning treatment decisions for their children.
- Team dynamics are crucial, and disputes should be managed to not impact patient care.
Connect with Us:
- Savanah Craig, DDS: @savanahcraigdds
- Ronnetta Sartor, DMD: @dr_sartor
- FutureDentists Beyond Graduation: @futuredentistsbeyondgraduation
- FutureDentists: @futuredentists
- IgniteDDS: @ignitedds and @ignitedds_coaching
- A-dec: @adecdental and https://www.a-dec.com/find-a-dealer
Listeners are encouraged to delve into this thought-provoking episode, rich with practical insights and authentic conversations. Stay tuned for more educational content from "Beyond Graduation," where Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor continue to explore new avenues in dentistry and share the journey of life after graduation.
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Transcript
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Speaker
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Introduction to Beyond Graduation Podcast
00:00:13
Speaker
Join Drs. Savannah Craig and Renetta Sartor as we navigate life beyond graduation. Real conversations about forging our own paths in our early years in our careers.
00:00:24
Speaker
There's a reason it's called practicing dentistry. All right, welcome back to another episode of Beyond Graduation. I'm Savannah Craig and with me as always. I'm Renetta Sartor.
Calming Nervous Patients with Humor
00:00:35
Speaker
All right, guys, we're going to do rapid fire patient scenarios and how you would handle it Yes. All right, Renetta, the patient is an older gentleman and asks how long you've been doing this. I tell them, well, I woke up really early this morning.
00:00:56
Speaker
And I was able to watch some YouTube videos. I'm feeling pretty confident. And then bust out laughing. Amazing. And then most of the time, they get a little chuckle. And then I'll you know run down my credentials. Great. And I went to school here. And I did my residency here. And I did all this you know post-graduation work and that sort of thing. And normally... It gets us to a good rapport. It lets them know my personality and it helps calm the situation. Because a lot of times they're asking that because they're nervous and they want they want a reassurance that you know what you're doing before you do anything on them. Yeah, I like that. so rapid fire, Savannah.
Handling Feedback on External Treatments
00:01:42
Speaker
What do you do if you planned treatment on a patient? And they call and they've gone had and had the treatment done elsewhere. But they want you to tell them if it was done right.
00:01:59
Speaker
And just, you know, kind of look at it and make sure it's it's good. Yeah. I think this is terrible, but I think it depends on the patient. But I i would say i would encourage them to go back to where they had the treatment done. um Let them know that they're going to understand best what went on because they did the treatment. I think if they are very adamant about coming in to see me, they're It's definitely a limited and some x-rays because that's not like a no charge post-op thing. And I think that determines the patient's buy-in to like wanting to come see me about it. Oh, that's good.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah, because if you can go back to wherever you had it done, it's probably going to be a post-op, I would assume. But yeah, I think it also depends what they had done. Was it something that we could do here or was it like an implant that got referred out that where we are going to maybe place the crown? So i think that's part of it. But yeah, it's not it's not free. Yes, i understood. Understood.
Managing Patient Contact After Hours
00:03:07
Speaker
Okay, Renetta, it is a Saturday night and your patient is in pain. Are they able to reach you? How do they reach you and what do you do about it?
00:03:20
Speaker
They are able to reach me by email and depending on the circumstances, I try to talk them through it via email and In some scenarios, if we can't get it talked through via email, we'll make a phone call to talk to them.
00:03:40
Speaker
Very rarely do I actually have to go into the office, but depending on what the scenario is, if it's post-op, something that we worked on and I have to go in, it's no charge. But if it's like an an emergency type situation, there's definitely a charge for me to come in after hours. What about if you're like out of town on vacation, are you still, do you still have access to that post-op email?
00:04:04
Speaker
Currently, yes, I do. But do I want to have access or do I want to delegate? TBD. okay dbd yeah Okay. Okay.
Dealing with Aesthetic Dissatisfaction
00:04:15
Speaker
Let's see. All right. So pretty much you have a patient that you did crown and bridge on. They approved the shade, but two weeks later comes in and saying they hate him. What do you do, Dr. Craig? So for dentures, we have like an aesthetic try-in form. I think we need one for crown and bridge that basically is like, you said yes before I put this in your mouth. So if you want it redone, then you got to pay for it. We don't have that. We probably should. i think bringing the patient in figuring out exactly what they're unhappy with, Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, if they want me to cut it off, I guess you got to They're at least going to get charged the lab bill to have it redone. Yeah. How are you handling that one? I think it depends because it's like, I think I will make sure that we're sure they love it before we so glue it in Yes. And then I agree with you. I'm in agreeance with you that, you know, it would it would at least need to be a lab fee charge or something like that. I also think explaining to them like what taking this off looks like and the risks of like teeth. The teeth might get really unhappy with me taking this off. And I need you to like, how bad this? Do you want it? Yeah, right. Understood. Understood.
00:05:33
Speaker
i did see it. This just made me think we're very bad at rapid fire. But I just saw a thing about online about like dental work, no matter what, is traumatic to the tooth. And a healthy nerve will bounce back. But an unhealthy nerve.
00:05:46
Speaker
might not. And I've been thinking a lot about that because I think it puts the own the ownership on the patient of like, this nerve might be unhealthy because you've had so much work or because of the cavity that's there or whatever, where I've been explaining like our handpiece generates heat. Like sometimes the tooth can heal from it. Sometimes it can't. But I like the idea of saying like, A healthy nerve will bounce back and an unhealthy nerve, for whatever XYZ reason we're doing this, might not. And I thought that was an interesting description. Yeah, think that kind of helps with patient communication because that's something that they can easily see and understand, I think. Yeah.
Importance of Oral Hygiene Before Aesthetic Work
00:06:26
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, you
00:06:30
Speaker
You have a patient who, you know, needs tons and tons of work. You're trying to... so okay, this is like a backstory one. In dental school, I feel like we were taught, you know...
00:06:45
Speaker
Got to get all the carries under control before you move to fixed. But let's be honest, in real life, it's not always black and white. They want their tooth back, whatever, whatever. So you decide to do the bridge, the crown, whatever to like stabilize this one area.
00:07:02
Speaker
patient comes back in for hygiene recall. they They had said that before they weren't brushing, flossing because it had been so long since they'd been to the dentist and had all of the, you know, it's painful, it's inflamed, all these things. And they come back for recall and they're literally not brushing, not flossing. What is that conversation with them about moving forward with other aesthetic treatment or how do you manage that onus of, I can do all the, you know, all the work, but if you're not caring for it it doesn't matter when a patient is, and, and,
00:07:32
Speaker
when a patient doesn't want to maintain their hygiene. Right. And so I would pretty much let the patient know they're not a candidate for any aesthetic work until they get their periodontal health under control and explain to them why, you know, you can spend all this money for aesthetic work, but if you are not brushing or flossing, you're going get cavities. It's not going to last.
00:07:58
Speaker
Yeah. In addition to that, if you aren't taking care of your gum health and you're not coming in for those maintenance appointments, we don't know that the very tooth that you go and get this aesthetic work done on that, it won't get loose and just pop out.
00:08:13
Speaker
You know, that's very real too. Yeah, in my office, any anything that's going to be like an aesthetic type case, that's a lot of work. Pretty much we'd be getting the caries under control first. And they'd have to prove to me that they can keep up with hygiene prior to like any disorder appointment or anything like that. And I make it very clear before we kind of do anything. Fair enough. Okay.
Parental Disagreements on Children's Dental Care
00:08:42
Speaker
What you got for me? What... Would you do if you had a scenario where parents were not in a good place and one parent had custody of the children, children come for their appointment, and the other parent shows up demanding things and getting in the way of treatment? Do do both parents have custody of the children and decision-making power?
00:09:12
Speaker
Primary custody is with the parent who's not there. I think it's just an explanation of like legally, like whoever has the primary custody gets to make the decision. I think we probably don't look into that as much as we should. Like, I don't know. That's probably weird to like interview every person that brings a child and be like, who are you? And do you, are you allowed to have this child and make the decision?
00:09:37
Speaker
But playing devil's advocate, right? Yeah. If the person does not have authority to give consent, I know. We could be in trouble. yep Yeah, that's a rough one. I hope it never happens.
00:09:51
Speaker
yeah i Yeah, especially if they're in disagreement with like whatever was scheduled for that day. I i think just having a conversation about like what's best for the the kid and awful all the pediatric dentists are going to come for me, but also a referral to PETA. Sounds pretty nice to me. Yeah, sorry, you specialized. you problem.
00:10:15
Speaker
so Lord. Okay.
Educating Patients on Oral Care Responsibility
00:10:16
Speaker
Patient, you know, rampant decay, pain with a certain tooth. All right. Let's go. Let's go with rampant decay everywhere. Most posterior molars, you know, massive decay, either extractions or buildup crown.
00:10:33
Speaker
Patient, It's relatively young, says they don't you know, they've got a couple of previous endos and crowns that are failing due to recurrent caries. They say, i don't believe in root canals and crowns because clearly they always fail.
00:10:51
Speaker
what what do you How do you educate the patient about their their piece, their responsibility for maintaining this dental work? And if they say, I don't believe in root canals and crowns, how do you how do you manage that?
00:11:09
Speaker
and think I kind of... navigate this one a little bit differently. I start by asking them what their goals are for their oral care in their mouth.
00:11:20
Speaker
I just want to be out of pain. I'm self-pay. Just want to be out of pain. We could focus on just the pain area because if they're there just to get out of pain in one area, pretty much I could let them know, hey, it's possible that you're going to have some other issues coming up with these other areas. And, you know, it just depends on where they are. And you don't know that until you talk them. If they're like, i only want to deal with this one tooth, we deal with the one tooth. But we always leave an open invitation for them to come back when they want to know more.
00:11:55
Speaker
You know, you could always ask the patient for permission to come. to let them know about what else is going around, going on in the air. Sometimes we go in hot and tell them, and sometimes they don't, they're not ready to hear, to hear it. So I think I would play that one that way. Like if, if he were to tell me, you know what, I know I've got a lot going on.
00:12:17
Speaker
I just don't know where to start. Then we can have a conversation about diet, you know, habits and figure out how he got into into this position ah you know I've had some discussions with some patients who they're like, i love Mountain Dew.
00:12:32
Speaker
I'm not giving it up. And I'm like, okay, well, since you won't give it up, you're probably going to give up having teeth at some point. you know like not Not being funny, but the you're just gonna is the the Mountain Dew is just going to eat your teeth up.
00:12:49
Speaker
And some of them more are like, yeah, I know. Like my mom and dad, they had dentures at 30. Yeah. I imagine I'm going to be the same way. And I'm like, okay, well, if you ever want to try to change change that around, make a different decision to try to keep what you have for as long as you can, we could talk about it.
00:13:07
Speaker
I'm here. Just let me know when you're ready. Yeah, that's really good. But yeah, that is the, your actions have consequences. And if you're cool with that, go for it. Okay.
Managing Team Disputes Professionally
00:13:17
Speaker
So- What would you do if, and this isn't patient related, but what would you do? Well, it's kind of patient related. What would you do if two of your team members kind of got in a spat in front of a patient? Oof.
00:13:31
Speaker
Okay. Is this happening in real time? Am I witnessing this or did it happen and I'm hearing about it later? i want a twofer. Okay. Yeah. Give me both scenarios. Okay. Okay. So if it's happening in real time, i think asking the team members to exit the room and go meet me in my office or in the break room or whatever, apologizing on their behalf to the patient and you know bringing another assistant hygienist, whatever, into that room to like finish that appointment because I think-
00:14:04
Speaker
in that moment, getting the patient comfortable and getting them out of there and, you know, maybe just being like, you know, make a joke like, oh, it's a full moon or, you know, it's the holidays or, oh, they didn't have their coffee or like something, but also just being like, I need you to know like that's not okay and we're going to handle it.
00:14:22
Speaker
I feel like I'm always kind of a like lead with humor in a way and just being like, yeah, I'm sorry, like, but we're all human kind of thing. And then trying to like move on with the patient as much as possible and then going to the team members and trying to hear them out about like what happened and then also letting them know that like that is not okay. And if you're – again, we're all human and we're all going to have disagreements, but you cannot – you know, like the professionalism and your job responsibility needs to come first and just being – trying to be very cognizant of not doing that.
00:14:54
Speaker
out in the open. I think if you hear about it later, you're probably going to address your team first and try to get to the bottom of what happened and maybe getting information from whomever told you because let's assume that like this happened in another part of the office and you weren't there and that's why you couldn't like immediately address it. Right. And then i don't know, my and initial gut reaction is to like have so either myself or have one of my front office folks call the patient and apologize. Or perhaps even better, if you can convince one of the team members, like assuming that this patient has a rapport with the office and with their hygienist or my assistant, having them just call and make sure the patient's okay. Because that's also super awkward. But then at the same time, I don't know if calling the patient and drawing attention to the situation is the right answer either. i think it's it's a tough scenario. Super.
00:15:49
Speaker
Yeah. Do you have any thoughts? My hope would be that scenario that the patient would have a upcoming appointment that was soon. Yeah. And you just talk about it when you see them.
00:16:00
Speaker
Right. But I also know myself to know if he didn't have one, I would probably call. Yeah. To say, hey, I heard XYZ happened. I wanted to personally call and apologize to you let you know that the situation's been handled. Totally. Yes. But I like face-to-face, so if they had upcoming appointment yeah while I'm in a room with them, I would apologize.
00:16:21
Speaker
Yeah. I think that's good. And I think it also, like, I don't know. I think it depends, like, what exactly happened, like... Yeah. I would definitely have a ah conversation with the team members, whether it was, you know, me hearing about it or seeing it firsthand.
00:16:37
Speaker
Yeah. That we're a team and we work together to create the best experience and provide the best care for our patients. Yeah. And that's going to be the front, the front forefront of everyone's mind. Always, always. We are here because of them. Without them, we're not here. We can't feed our families. Yeah. You know, we can't take care of our family, so we have to treat our patients right.
00:17:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. All right. This was fun. Yes. This was super fun. Yes. comment Comment your scenarios and maybe we'll do this again with some audience scenarios. I think that'd be fun. All right, friends. Until next
Conclusion and Audience Engagement
00:17:20
Speaker
time. you for joining us for this episode of Beyond Graduation.
00:17:23
Speaker
If you enjoyed this week's episode, be sure to share it with a friend. Connect with us social media at Savannah Craig DBS and at Dr. Sartor.
00:17:35
Speaker
And remember, you are not alone on this journey.
Promotion for ADEC Pre-owned Equipment
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ADEC certified pre-owned equipment is a sustainable, affordable choice that makes genuine ADEC equipment available to every doctor. Each package is sold on a first-come, first-served basis. So if you see one you like, contact your dealer. For more information, go to www.adec.com backslash findadealer. Thank you for listening to Beyond Graduation brought to you by Ignite DDS and Future Dentists. This episode was sponsored by Ignite DDS Coaching.
00:18:06
Speaker
We build self-determined futures. For more information, please reach out to the Ignite DDS team.