[Optimizing the relational aspects of orthodontics: the foundations of successful cooperation]

As practicing professionals it is essential that orthodontists should think carefully about their status of care givers and their relationships with their patients. In doing this, they should analyze the dynamics of the impact of their therapeutic team on patients throughout the entire treatment procedure. It is equally important that they understand the decisive importance of the way patients are welcomed into the office ambience and the way staff members communicate with them and take into consideration their needs and expectations. Today specialists in dento-facial orthopedics and their staff members are usually well versed in techniques and technologies. On the other hand, while they may be giving serious thought and study to behavioral aspects of their practices, this remains an area in which considerable improvement can still be achieved. It is still true that considerations of the psychological, affective, and moral dimensions of human beings, especially of children, which are key factors in daily practice, occupy a far too modest slot in the dental school curriculum. This major instructional gap, despite the best intentions of faculties and practitioners, leads to inadequate communication with patients and their parents. "The road to effective communication, like the road to hell, is paved with good intentions." All members of the office staff are doubtless performing to the best of their abilities. But they work in intuitive fashion, limited by their individual aptitudes. The result: practitioners and staffers as well are, in totally good faith, likely to commit errors in communication. While concentrating on treatment at the chair, practitioners can have little idea of what assistants are doing, behind their backs, in the business area or at the reception desk. As a consequence, there can be repercussions affecting the proper economic growth of the practice. In order to find the most appropriate solutions to this problem, orthodontists must first have a solid understanding of just what it is.