Patient communication requirements

Patient communication requirements

The process of informed consent requires a thorough communication between healthcare professional and patient. The communication should minimally comprise:

• Listening to the patient
  • worries and concerns
  • expectations
  • questions
• treatment options
• what is possible to achieve and what is not
• prognostic factors
• patient time, treatment times and timelines
• temporary discomfort
• morbidity
• risks and prognostic factors for long-term success
• costs and eventual reimbursements

The aim of oral rehabilitation counseling and information is to help the patient understand the full nature of the treatment being considered and to address their questions and concerns. The clinician is faced with challenge that the technical terminology of dentistry cannot be used, but must instead speak in a language that the medical layman will understand.

Main & Adair (2015) have addressed key points of interest for dental health care professionals when obtaining informed consent. These points are:

• the process of informed consent requires a careful dialogue between doctor and patient
• basing disclosure of any given risk on the chances (percentage) of it occurring is no longer acceptable
• the dentist must carefully consider whether a risk is material by considering:
  • whether a reasonable person in the patient’s position would be likely to attach significance to it, and/or
  • whether the patient in question would probably attach significance to it
• the patient should be made aware of reasonable alternative treatment options
• the dentist should take steps to ensure that the patient gets, and has understood, this information
• the consent form does not prove informed consent. It does, however, act as some record that the discussions have taken place. The dentist should keep a contemporaneous record of the consent process including risks and treatment options discussed.