Dr. Tom Giacobbi is back with another quick tip that can help you in your dental practice. In this week's installment of "Just a Minute, Doc," Giacobbi tackles patient communication.
Have you ever looked for a way to better explain cracked tooth syndrome or a root canal to patients? Dr. Giacobbi offers some recommendations that can help.
Video transcript
"Mary, go ahead and make that temporary. I'll be back in just a minute.
"Let's take some time to talk about how we communicate clinical topics with our patients. The first? Cracked tooth syndrome.
"It's not unusual for a patient with cracked tooth syndrome to not fully grasp that they may need a root canal, either now or in the future. The way I would describe it to a patient today:
'We prepared your tooth for a crown, and anytime we work on a tooth, whether it's a filling, a crown, or anything else, we're going to irritate your tooth. If the nerve inside your tooth is healthy, the tooth will recover and return to normal. If the tooth is not healthy, you may start to experience increased symptoms of sensitivity to cold, hot, spontaneous pain, and so on. These are signs your tooth might need a root canal before we put on your final crown.'
That leads the patient to ask, 'What's a root canal?' if they've never had one before. Well, Mr. Patient, the root of your tooth has a hollow tube inside, and the root canal specialist goes in that tube and cleans out that sick nerve, they fill the space with a filling material so nothing else can live there. The tooth at the end is the same as it was before, except no more pain.
"Now, let's get back to work."
