GUARDING & GUIDING ORAL SYSTEMIC HEALTH
ABOUT THE LIFEGUARD APPROACH™
Dental hygienists who limit their chairside interactions to simple conversations, polishing, and generic advice miss valuable opportunities to identify patients who are at risk for or are already in the early stages of disease. This approach not only hinders the development of meaningful patient relationships but also underutilizes evidence-based knowledge.
Relying on one-size-fits-all scripts like “If you brush and floss more, the bleeding will stop!” proves ineffective. Such impersonal and passive messages fail to resonate with patients' unique values. While some patients aim to avoid the negative consequences of disease, others are motivated by the pursuit of health and well-being.
This oversight leaves both the hygienist and the patient struggling to thrive in challenging circumstances. The LifeGuard Approach™ encourages dental professionals to embrace the benefits of utilizing LifeLines™ in their practice, enabling them to protect patients from risk factors and disease while promoting self-advocacy and oral-systemic health.
WHAT IS A PATIENT LIFEGUARD?
Today’s dental professional is in a unique position to take life-saving approaches and be a LifeGuard for their pool of patients. It is time to reevaluate our approach to patient care and to become active LifeGuards in the health monitoring and education of our patients.
When a patient asks a question, it is common for the healthcare provider to make assumptions about why that question was asked by that patient. Because there can be ten different reasons and ten different answers for why a patient asks that one question as well as ten different assumptions that a health care provider might make upon hearing the patient’s question, what you must do is STOP answering the question without first seeking clarity.
Feigning politeness gets in the way of helping patients get what they want. If you want to build rapport with your patients, stop making assumptions, get to the point, and ask quality questions and become a true LifeGuard to your patient.
A LifeGuard creates predictably higher levels of health and wellness in today's dental patient by:
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Directing and focusing attention on the lifestyle, habits, and oral health of their pool of patients.
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Acting as patient advocate by developing relationships based on trust, communication, and respect.
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Offering a LifeLine to patients through education that empowers and shifts behaviors.
WHAT ARE PATIENT LIFELINES?
Just as a LifeGuard may cast a floatation device out to save a swimmer, a dental professional may offer a LifeLine to a patient found to be in a dangerous health situation. LifeLines™ are indispensable for the protection of life because when a LifeLine breaks or is absent, the patient may either become ill or suffer serious disease or death. It is up to us to become the lifelines for our patients.
In dentistry, critical LifeLines™ are healthcare providers, as well as, the most advanced science, screenings, protocols, and technologies used to:
i) assess patients’ level of risk
ii) drive providers’ selection of patient care
iii) reduce patients’ instance of life-altering events
iv) contribute to the health and wellness of the practice
Basically, everything that you can do for your patient becomes a LifeLine.
LifeLines™ yield data for a health/survival analysis, which you can use when measuring and monitoring patients’ progression from the Danger Zone into the Safety Zone. Basically, LifeLines provide contact and support for ongoing success and survival.
Therefore, don’t be afraid of what you might uncover through use of these LifeLines; be afraid of what you might miss without them.
