As strong as today’s chairside presentations and take-home DVDs have become in terms of graphics and delivering a strong message, most of our survey respondents still rely heavily on good old-fashioned pamphlets and brochures to assist in educating their patients. Actually, considering many of these brochures are generated in-office with the help of today’s technology, they shouldn’t all be considered old-fashioned.

The most popular choice of patient education media used by our readers is pamphlets/brochures for patients (73%), while 58% of you use the same for a patient’s parents. Two-thirds use models of dentition, gingiva, or restorations to educate your patients. At least four in 10 use before-and-after photo albums of patients treated in the practice, posters, and life-sized or over-sized instructional models of toothbrushes. Twenty-seven percent use DVD interactive programs for patient education, and close to one-third indicated that they use a practice Web site, and/or intraoral camera “tours” of the patient’s mouth.

Berghoff adds documentation that the patient has been provided the appropriate case information is essential, whether talking about a brochure or DVD to take home or a video presentation in the practice. “It (patient education) sure has evolved, but we still should not overlook that brochure or that printed document particularly with post-op instructions, which is a part of education, too,” she said. “To know you would be able, in the worst case scenario, to prove that you had truly educated the patient is important. You have to be able to say: ‘Look. We played this video for the patient, and we gave him these post-op printed instructions. Both actions are documented.’ In addition, this information is not from a staff member who, maybe, has given the spiel three times already (that day).”

We asked those of you using videotapes and/or DVDs how you offered them to your patients. What we learned is that 73% are showing these chairside, and the same number is showing these patient education presentations in the office reception area.

Dr. Alfred dela Cruz of San Ramon, Calif., uses Consult-PRO’s Chairside 2008 system, and he is happy with both the educational results and case acceptance.

“It has increased patient acceptance for many routine procedures, and it has dramatically increased acceptance for ‘elective’ procedures such as cosmetic dentistry, cosmetic dental surgery, and implants,” Dr. dela Cruz said. “Chairside 2008 complements my own presentation, which includes models and before-and-after photos. It closes the deal, and patients readily accept my recommended treatment. This is because they leave with confidence and the knowledge that I care enough to spend the necessary time to show and explain what I propose for them.

“Patients who ‘see’ what I mean after watching the presentations realize the outcome step by step, including possible risks and complications.”

Another big benefit of viewing chairside is that some of today’s patient education programs integrate closely with practice management software. This means that a click on a patient’s electronic chart can automatically deliver the appropriate patient education presentation(s), document that the patient has viewed them, tie into consent forms, and help produce customized brochures or DVDs for the patient to take home.

“You go with a deeper integration if you go with the parent company,” said Dr. Busch, noting that CAESY’s capabilities expand when used with Patterson’s EagleSoft software, and Guru’s do the same when used with Dentrix. “So, with both Guru and EagleSoft, patient education will link with the diagnosis. If you put your treatment plan in, it will link the treatment plan to the presentation automatically. So if you put your plan in, it will automatically generate a playlist of the appropriate presentations for that plan, just doing it automatically in the background.”

The systems also will keep records as to which patients have viewed which programs.

“They’ll keep a track record, if you will, of what you’ve shown them in the past, and with Guru, you can sign the screen with the little rubber pen so that you get the patient’s initials that they viewed it,” Dr. Busch said.

The Kansas City GP adds that this method of chairside presentation helps deliver a powerful message to patients sitting in the operatory.

“Once they can see what their problem is, then you can zoom in and you can actually draw in the types of options that they have,” he explained. “So if they want an implant, you draw the implant on the screen yourself. You’re drawing it crudely, but they get the message and you’re sitting knee-to-knee with them, eyeball-to-eyeball, instead of sitting behind them with a mouse. That’s the nice part about Guru:You’re actually drawing on the screen in front of them.”

It’s also easy to electronically share information today. “You can e-mail the content, or you can send them home with a CD or a DVD,” Dr. Busch said. “They’ll get an e-mail from the dental office, and it says just click on this link. This takes them directly to the presentation, so you’re not bogging down people’s e-mail with too high a file size.”

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