Patient-clinician communication in a dental setting: a pilot study

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Patient Communication
• Healthcare Professional Skills

Background:

• Assessing patient perceptions of dentists' interpersonal skills is crucial for quality dental care.
• The Communication Assessment Tool (CAT) is a validated instrument for evaluating communication skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To pilot the Communication Assessment Tool (CAT) for assessing patient perceptions of dentists' interpersonal skills.
• To evaluate the utility of the CAT in a dental context.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted.
• 95 patients completed the CAT after consultations with 20 dentists across three UK university hospital dental clinics.
• Patient ratings focused on dentists' interpersonal skills, experience, gender, and speciality.

Main Results:

• Dentists' communication skills were rated as excellent 73% of the time.
• Patients reported lower satisfaction with opportunities to ask questions and involvement in decision-making.
• Perceived satisfaction varied with dentists' experience and gender.

Conclusions:

• Patients are largely satisfied with dentist-patient communication.
• The CAT is a useful tool for assessing dentists' interpersonal skills in a dental setting.
• The CAT can aid in documenting the development of communication skills for dentists and students.