Building patient rapport

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Posted by: Dental Design 14th April 2023

The patient-practitioner relationship makes a significant difference to the quality of care that can be provided. By getting to know the patient, dentists can better understand what the barriers to oral health might be and therefore more specifically tailor their advice. A strong rapport between the two can be a very powerful tool in the long-term health of the patient as they are more likely to trust and therefore follow the recommendations they receive. Similarly, an effective patient-practitioner relationship encourages patient loyalty and consequently encourages them to return to the practice for years to come, creating stability in patient numbers and supporting the business in the long-run.

So, how can this relationship be established and what needs to happen to strengthen it over time?

Dr Sorabh Patel is an award-winning dentist who believes this can be achieved by connecting with a patient on a personal level. He is a champion for dental public health awareness and is passionately involved with Operation Smiles – a charity providing care to children born with cleft lip and palate. He practises in London, where he is dedicated to delivering ethical restorative dentistry using minimally invasive techniques. Sorabh says:

“We are all guilty of just jumping straight into treatment and only seeing the dental problems, but we rarely take the time to see how these impact the human behind it all. People are not just their teeth. We get so caught up in fixing tooth problems that we might fail to see how we can holistically help our patients throughout their lifetime.

“Connecting with them on a human level and encouraging their trust are the cornerstones of healthcare. We need to reconnect with these values so that we can treat our patients for life and realise what’s truly important to them.”

Of course, given the stress that most dental teams are under every day, it’s important that any changes can be implemented in an efficient and viable way. Sorabh acknowledges there are challenges to taking this kind of approach, and offers his perspective on how to overcome them:

“The most common barrier to building effective patient relationships is time – dentists think they don’t have time to do all this during their examination appointments. This is a huge misconception.

“The time is there; you just have to manage it appropriately. One way to do this is to empower your dental nurse to be more involved and help with photography. A full set of dental photographs takes less then 2 minutes with practice and if you can share or delegate this task entirely, you can save time for other aspects of the appointment.”

Sorabh will be presenting two sessions in the Next Generation Conference at the British Dental Conference & Dentistry Show (BDCDS) 2023, on 13 May at the NEC in Birmingham, sharing his experience and valuable insights into building relationships with patients over time. He says:

“I will focus on communication and rapport building. My personal philosophy is: ‘if you can’t connect with your patient, you need to ask yourself should I be treating them?’ I’ll be looking at some of the ways in which clinicians might better allocate appointment time in order to facilitate a higher quality of patient interaction.”

Reflecting on his experience of attending BDCDS in the past, Sorabh adds:

“I first started coming to the event to network and meet some of the dentists that I looked up to and who could see where the future of dentistry was going. I remember back in 2015 when intraoral scanners were first being commercially viable – now I have two of them in my practices. It’s incredible seeing the advancements of dentistry both in terms of the profession and the technology.”

BDCDS 2023 will enable the entire dental team to gain up to 12 hours of Enhanced CPD, with educational programmes running alongside an extensive exhibition. Register online today to make sure you don’t miss out.