An exploratory study of orthodontic resident communication by patient race and ethnicity

Race has been shown to affect the quality of physician-patient relations. In view of this, dentistry must consider whether race also affects dentist-patient relations. The purpose of this study was to explore whether orthodontic residents showed more social connection and concern for European ancestry patients, were more negative to minority patients, and appropriately used interventions designed to overcome cultural differences. Communications in sixty-eight dentist-patient encounters were analyzed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). The frequencies of each type of utterance were examined according to the patient's race/ethnicity. The race/ethnic groups were European (nineteen), African American (eleven), Latino (thirty-four), and Asian (four). In 90 percent of the sessions, the resident and the patient were of different ethnicity. Residents used social connection utterances more with European ancestry patients, but used personal utterances more with Latino patients. Residents did not use open-ended questions or probes for patient understanding more with minority patients. The communication patterns observed in this study were similar to those reported in the literature. This study has limitations, but additional research may confirm that residents communicate differently with patients by race and could use more appropriate methods of dealing with cross-cultural situations. More research on cross-cultural communication is needed.