Hi and welcome, or welcome back. You are listening to the Perio Hygienist Podcast, a podcast for my fellow dentists plus my colleagues in dental hygiene, along with future dentists and hygienists, also dental specialists like me, and anyone else who cares to listen.
My name is Ben Young, and I am a practicing periodontist in San Antonio, Texas. This is Episode 73. And the title is: Video One-on-Ones.
This subject is a continuation of a few others preceding it on the topic of communication.
Communication skills are critically important and yet unappreciated by many, if not most, in our line of work.
The Covid-19 Pandemic lockdown of 2020 was in many ways silly. It went against established epidemic protocols of the past. I think it is important to acknowledge this to avoid the mistakes made.
But as with many dark days, there came out of it many silver linings – and one of these was the introduction to the public of video conferencing. Of course, this had been in use long before Covid. It just was not a universally accepted, understood, and utilized technology on a mass scale as it has now become.
Which brings me to you and me and ways to communicate efficiently and effectively.
Necessity being the mother of invention – or to put it another way – problems promote possibilities – I, along with many of you I’m sure, have experienced the problem of attempting to talk by phone during the workday. The call is an interruption and is often unsuccessful either in being able to connect or connecting at a bad time.
Email is one solution to the phone call, but it is impersonal and requires reading and writing, which take time. Of course, there are ways to enable this process to move more efficiently, and it is important to have a record that can be reviewed in the future as necessary, especially when it comes to patient treatment, but it provides just a little understanding of the more complete picture a face-to-face conversation can provide. It is commonly taught in speech classes that non-verbal is much more communicative over simply the written or spoken word.
Which brings me to other common attempts at communication that generally work weakly if at all.
Certainly, we like it when people bring goodies to the office. It’s fun. I will say it even plays an important role because it enables people to see those they may be interacting with via email or phone at least briefly in a face-to-face moment. But of course, it is still an interruption.
Meeting at local events like dental society meetings or providing some CE are helpful, but not focused specifically on patient care. At some of these events it might be possible for two practitioners to have a private discussion about the care of a mutual patient, but this is hit and miss at best.
So now, here is my solution, and I offer it to any of you who wish to communicate face-to-face as needed by events and yet at a time when it is optimum for both parties.
In a way it behaves like email in that the person writing the message does so in their own time and the one reading it does so when convenient to them.
What I am now attempting to do is offer to meet via Zoom for a set amount of time. Usually, fifteen minutes or less works well. The purpose is to talk about a mutual patient. Certainly, other topics are open to be discussed as well – and because this is being done at a time when both parties have set aside time, there should not be a rushed feeling about the conversation. Having said this, it is helpful that both understand they will not be held captive too long – that the meeting will be as efficient as possible while not being rushed in anyway. My hope, essentially, is that this becomes a simple way to stay in touch anytime two need to talk – when there is a question or concern, for example.
Here is how the process works in a little detail.
I will send an email, often with the report of a particular patient and at the bottom of the message I will offer to meet online via Zoom. I will place a link that should, if everything is working, open up a schedule of times I am available.
The process can be even easier than this. I can text and send a link to schedule.
One other benefit for this method is the ability to bring up patient related information.
Well, that’s it for today. If you have any questions, send me a note or call my office. I’ll send you a scheduler link and we can hop on a brief zoom chat.
This has been The Perio Hygienist Podcast, and I am still Dr. Ben Young.
Thanks for listening.
Bye for now.
I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put it down.
