31 January 2025

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Now Playing: Video FAQs for Your Next Dentist Appointment

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et’s say your young child will soon be going to their first dentist appointment, and you want to help prepare them. Or you want a whiter, brighter smile, but there’s so much information out there, from friends, social media, and TV, you’re not sure what’s right, and what’s hype. 

The students at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine have you covered. They have created a video series designed to provide clear, understandable answers to some of the most common questions about dental exams and oral health care. The series, called TuftsTube, was originally designed for the thousands of patients who receive treatment at TUSDM’s various clinics at One Kneeland Street in Boston, but is also available online through the YouTube channel of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life for anyone seeking tooth tips.

This past fall, signs went up in the clinics’ waiting rooms with a QR code to access the videos. 

“This project is valuable on so many levels,” says Nancy Marks, Tisch College’s community service learning coordinator at the dental school and the lead advisor on the project. “It helps students think through how you communicate with patients. The products coming out are informative and promote dialogue between the patients and their student providers in real time. And they make good use of the waiting-room time to engage the patients.”

The video series was launched during the 2023-24 academic year under the leadership of Arika Neal-Branch, D24. The current TuftsTube team includes Bryce Pitts, D27, creative director; Maya Abujamra D27, chief editor and writer; Yesenia Reyes, D26, secretary; Valquiria de Laurenzio, D26, community outreach coordinator; Dana Moskowitz, D28, and Marina Labeb, D28. “This has made the entire dental school experience a little more holistic, in the sense of combining everything we’ve learned in our classes with clinical and community and patient applications,” Pitts says.

Students write the scripts for the roughly three- to four-minute videos, which are then reviewed by faculty advisor Kathryn Dolan, assistant professor of public health and community service. Marks assists with filming and editing.

While the actors all speak in English, the videos are available with subtitles in simplified Chinese and Spanish. There are plans to have them available soon in Portuguese and Haitian Creole.

The project draws on the importance of good doctor-patient communication, a skill that’s stressed in the classroom for first- and second-year dental students, who have not yet begun treating patients in the clinics. Third- and fourth-year students provide hands-on care for patients under the supervision of faculty. 

“It’s a wonderful way to put the skills that they’ve learned in their courses to use,” says Dolan. One principle the students are taught—and that Dolan particularly looks for when reviewing the scripts—is the use of what is known as plain language.

“The students are expected to use high-level dental terminology when they are speaking with faculty and practice coordinators, but they need to switch to plain language when talking to their patients,” Dolan says. For instance, on their exams, dental students write about “caries.” Chairside, they talk about “cavities.” 

The use of non-technical language can also be useful for the professional translators who prepare the Chinese and Spanish captioning, says De Laurenzio. 

The videos enforce the communications practice of “tell, show, do”—preparing a patient through a verbal, and then visual, description of a procedure, Dolan says. And they remind the student-dentists to keep the interactions positive when talking about oral hygiene or home care that needs improvement. “They teach us the ‘sandwich method,’ De Laurenzio says: positive feedback, tips for improvement, and another positive statement. 

“Don’t say, ‘you’re not doing a good job,’ ” says Reyes. “You can say, ‘how about trying it this way,’ and then ask them to follow the videos.”

The videos can also help patients retain necessary information. “There have been times that I went to a doctor’s appointment and the doctor may have told me information, but when I get home, I forget everything they’ve said,” says Pitts. “So these videos are a good way for our patients to be able to go back and revisit what we have shown them.”

And perhaps the videos can make the entire dental experience less anxiety-provoking.  “Dental appointments don’t have to be an uncomfortable experience,” says Abujamra. “We just want to be approachable to our patients. The way these videos are framed is to create that environment.”

Watch the Video

Author: Helene Ragovin

Source: https://now.tufts.edu/