Belligerent patients are something which every dentist must have faced at dome point of time or other. Such patients are found in almost every locality and across every social economic class.
In dental college we are not taught about handling such patients. We then have to learn all by ourselves in the school of life.
Herein I will give my brief suggestions on handling such difficult situations and patients:
To begin with do not expect that every patient who walks in will be cooperative and will not question you or create a scene.
Keep your eyes and ear open, initiate strong protocol in the clinic, train staffs to recognize and indentify such patients and you yourself must be well prepared to handle any such disruptive patients.
All of the above will be elaborated upon later.
Herein I will describe what you need to do when patients or relatives are back answering or arguing.
- First of all maintain the balance of mind. Stay cool, calm and composed but be alert and arguments can escalate into physical assaulted also. Luckily in dentistry such incidents are rare.
- Explain the situation properly consciously and in a language in which the patient can understand. Make use of patient education software, models, etc. to gain control of the situation. After you do this decide what you want to do next? Do you still want him and his family to be phased out ?
- Even if you want to retain the patient, make your displeasure known in a very clear term and make it clear to the patient that such behavior was not expected and will not be tolerated in the future.
- Do not worry even if the patient feels insulted. Most of such patient eventually comes back to you provided your clinical skills are good.
After every such episode do a thorough protocol check of your clinic and strength the system? Also you need to train yourself and your staff and ensure that such incidence do not happen again.
Each and every points mentioned above will be elaborate in separate articles later.
A dental surgeon should not loss his dignity and respect under any circumstance even if it means loss of few patients and revenue.
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Thanks and best regards,
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Veerendra Darakh
