A key to understanding parental psychology in pediatric dental office.
According to the basics of Pediatric Dentistry, the interactions between the child, dentist and parent are the three main cornerstones of the practice. This is referred to as Pedodontic Triangle. Child, being the priority in the scenario and conversations, is placed at the top of the triangle.
Any treatment that needs to be performed is explained in detail to parents. Usually schematic drawings, videos, three dimensional models and literature reviews are used as teaching tools.
Same treatment needs are explained in age based comprehensive vocabulary when it comes to the child.
When there are multiple set of conversations involved, there is a possibility of confusions and misunderstandings. Commonly, the misunderstandings arise due to missed information, lack of coordination between two interacting people, clashes in energy exchange or just general lack of rapport.
NLP brings forth a very simple concept of “I Am OK You are OK”. This concept signifies that no one is right or wrong in the given situation. Each person has their individual perspective based on their core values, past experiences, interactions, beliefs, socio-demographic differences and many other grounds.
We see the world through our filters, we expect people to behave as per our filters. This is the expected reality but the existing reality is that each person behaves out of their own free will and conditioning.
There are times when parents can have multiple questions, repeated questions, mistrust, and even disagreements regarding the treatment plans, costs and/or proceedings of the treatment at the dental office.
Calm and composed aura of the dentist, with complete understanding of the human psychology can help at these times. Parents are genuinely concerned about their child’s health, so any number of questions should be warmly welcomed and answered, without taking any as personal attack.
Since there are costs involved, all the needed details on clinical status based treatment plan should be explained in consultation appointment. If there is any possibility of change in treatment plan, this should be mentioned beforehand rather during the treatment.
Parents should feel the free space and time to gather information, research, read, reflect, even take second opinion if need arises.
This conveys that we care and take full responsibility towards significance of treatment needs and explaining any related details at length.
Give as much information as possible, respect the concerns, respect the queries and trust that none of these are personal. They are meant towards the information based decision regarding the dental health of the child.
Energy exchange that happens under the umbrella of “I am OK You are OK” is of neutral nature that’s an absolute essential for the treatment to commence on positive note and progress further.
