The A–Z of motivation in dental practice
Published: 01/05/2012
Maintaining your enthusiasm for work can be difficult. Motivation can be as easily switched on and off for dental care professionals and the patients in their care. The role of the dental care professional is to maintain their enthusiasm for everything they do in practice
Someone once asked me ‘how on earth can you stare into people’s smelly mouths all day? Therein lies the source of my motivation really. I am hugely motivated by the prospect of helping someone improve their oral health, whether it is to help them reduce their plaque scores or give up smoking. Tailoring the advice that I give to help motivate the patient to change is what motivates me.
Most people struggle to motivate themselves to do the mundane or boring. The secret to achieving your goals is to seek out the motivational button in what we do.
A is for audit—a useful tool for ensuring standards and reviewing routine procedures are in practice. Thinking that the practice is doing well is quite different from actually proving that they are in a measurable and reproducible way.
B is for behavioural change—necessary for all if the practice is going to shift up a gear in terms of patient-centred practice. This is important for patients if they need to reduce their relative risk factors for oral disease.
C is for communication—encouraging behavioural change in our patients is only possible if there is good and consistent communication of oral healthcare messages. Dental teams who communicate well in a team are always at the forefront of our professional award ceremonies.
D is for delegation—you don’t have to do it all yourself. There is nothing more empowering and motivating than encouraging the team members to reach their full potential. They can only do that if they are given the task to do.
E is for encouragement—regularly and opportunistically highlighting positive outcomes and results is a good way to maintain the motivation to do anything, be it reducing frequency of fermentable carbohydrates in our patients’ diets or undertaking postgraduate education to increase your scope of practice.
F is for fear—our patients fear us, more so than spiders according to the British Dental Health Foundation. Fear can both motivate and de-motivate us into action. The fear of losing your teeth can be a motivator to improve your oral hygiene standards.
G is for goal setting—setting an achievable timetable for yourself and for your patients can make even the insurmountable tasks possible. A reducing percentage dichotomous plaque score for patients with poor plaque control can lead them in the right direction from the outset. Actually seeing their plaque scores reducing as a result of their increased attention to their oral hygiene can be very motivating.
H is for halitosis—can be the motivator for attending for treatment, and complying with advice to eliminate it.
I is for ideas—share your ideas and listen to those from others, including your patients. Taking a fresh approach to things could be exactly what you need to boost your patient list and increase your effectiveness as a dental team.
J is for jargon—ditch it. Motivating patients to be regular attendees requires them to understand the need for them to do so. The use of our private dental language isolates us and can be a barrier to understanding and acceptance.
K is for keep up the good work. Sometimes it is easy to forget to say thank you to a hard-working colleague or well done to a patient that has quit smoking, albeit for just a week. Praise is an excellent motivator.
L is for local events—village fetes, sporting events, community-led projects and collaborative health initiatives: any opportunity to raise the profile of oral health and the dental team’s role in providing this can reap impressive results in terms of patient awareness and motivation to seek oral health advice.
‘Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm’ Ralph Waldo Emerson.
M is for make it easy for patients—make the products you recommend in practice easy for the patients to access either by selling them from the reception desk or providing them with a comprehensive mail order brochure; the healthy choice needs to be the easy choice to motivate us to comply.
N is for new patients—ensuring that new patients are fully informed about proposed treatment plans and costs associated with their treatment will serve to motivate them to accept the clinical decisions suggested to improve their oral health. Information and consent are interlinked from an ethical and legal stance.
O is for overt oral cancer screening—offering oral cancer screening may motivate patients to come to the surgery for investigation of suspicious lesions. Late detection is a key factor in survival rates. Our patients rely on the dental teams to be an expert in oral health and dentists and hygienists are effective clinicians in the oral cavity for mouth cancer. Early detection increases the survival rate to 90% and so routine opportunistic screening is crucial. One of the key factors in reducing morbidity from oral cancer is to identify oral abnormalities at their most treatable stage in their development.
P is for plaque: or it used to be anyway. Now we talk about the far more exciting biofilm. Same stuff, but we have a better understanding of its complexity and role in oral health. It still needs removing or disrupting to reduce its pathogenic potential in both caries and periodontal disease. Regular professional plaque and calculus removal in the form of the scale and polish is often the motivator for regular dental attendance.
Q is for qualifications—delivering a high standard of care is reliant upon the skills and competency of the team. Investing in the training of the team and the maintenance of those competencies is a hugely motivating factor in team dynamics and success.
‘An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest’ Benjamin Franklin.
R is for refresh. Reviewing and updating practice materials is an important factor in establishing ownership, pride and confidence in your place of work. Out of date or tatty documentation gives a bad impression of the practice and staff.
S is for scope of practice—understanding your full role in the team in terms of your permitted duties and potential is often the motivator to make you want more. Review your scope of practice and also those of the rest of the team.
‘When we put a limit on what we will do, we put a limit on what we can do’ Charles Schwab.
T is for TePe: The arrival of the simple colour coded interdental brushes has revolutionised our patients’ home maintenance regimens. The ‘can’t floss won’t floss brigade’ now can and do ‘clean between’.
U is for unique—think about what makes your dental practice different from all the others. What motivates patients to register with your practice? What is it about your practice that would inspire your professional colleagues to want to come and work in your team?
V is for values—what we hold dear motivates us to do or not do all manner of things. If you value beauty you may well choose to spend your entire years’ salary on complex cosmetic procedures that empower you to be the person you believe you are. Values are different for everyone.
W is for warm welcome—the first impression is a lasting one. We have all experienced the grumpy uncommunicative receptionist that inspires us to turn and leave. A barrier to seeking care can be motivated by negative experience of dental care in the past. Every aspect of the patient’s visit to the practice matters—from how valued they feel as a patient to clinical outcome achieved.
X is for xerostomia—saliva is hugely important in maintaining a healthy mouth. Reduced salivary flow is a major contributing factor in progressive oral diseases, difficulties with mouth function and to a variety of painful and distressing symptoms which severely affect the sufferer’s quality of life. Complaints of a dry mouth (xerostomia) and diminished salivary output (salivary hypofunction) are common conditions, particularly in older people. They can result in impaired intake of food and fluids, a host of oral disorders and diminished host defence and communication. Global estimates of xerostomia and salivary gland hypofunction are difficult to establish due to differences in study populations, diagnostic criteria, and limited sample sizes. Overall the prevalence increases with age and affects ~30% of the population aged 65 and over. Diagnosing and acknowledging the quality-of-life issues that xerostomia can cause goes a long way to encouraging your patients to try different coping mechanisms to help them deal with what is often a long-term problem.
‘As a dental nurse you regularly come into contact with smokers who may be ready to quit with the right support and motivation’
Y is for yawn—if this motivation stuff just isn’t for you then perhaps it’s time to invest in yourself. How about some targeted CPD to increase your scope of practice? How about training to become a smoking cessation advisor for your practice. Within dentistry clear links exist between tobacco usage and poor health (both general and oral). As a dental nurse you regularly come into contact with smokers who may be ready to quit with the right support and motivation. You could provide that motivation! Stop yawning and get training.
Z is for zzzzzzz—the zzzz that can be a major feature of practice meetings can be a huge de-motivator for all. Get some zap back into them. Get together with a colleague and present your plan for the practice to take part in one of our excellent national health promoting initiatives: Smile Month (May), Mouth Cancer Action Month (November), National Stop Smoking Day (March). Wake up. Your motivation is waiting for you.
‘The future depends upon what we do in the present’ Mahatma Gandhi.
position="float" orientation="portrait">? Motivation can be found for most things if you look hard enough.
? Understanding someone’s motivation to adapt a particular behaviour is key to establishing change.
? A shared approach to improving practice procedures can enhance overall outcome.
? investing in your own personal development as well as in those you work with can improve the effectiveness and happiness of the team.
KEY POINTS
Author: MA Healthcare
