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It was interesting to see pictures of different waiting rooms and observe what features of waiting rooms and environments in general elevate or lower anxiety. From this session, I learned that just walking down long empty hallways or even just an elevator ride can provoke anxiety, so it’s useful to have sensory focal points / distractions with some element of patient interaction / control on the walls of the hallways. The Little Bird Pediatric Dentistry office design was so innovative and interesting to learn about! I also learned about how important it is to provide natural lighting and mirrors to give a feeling of spaciousness. Seeing a board with toys on display instead of a typical “treasure chest” or box filled with toys was also quite novel to me. Overall, I learned lots of useful tips and ideas about designing a practice to be both accessible and calming for patients with special healthcare needs.
<span data-sheets-value=”{"1":2,"2":"It was interesting to see pictures of different waiting rooms and observe what features of waiting rooms and environments in general elevate or lower anxiety. I learned that walking down long empty hallways or even just an elevator ride can provoke anxiety, so it’s useful to have sensory focal points / distractions with some element of pt interaction / control on the walls of the hallways. The Little Bird Pediatric Dentistry office design was so innovative and interesting to learn about! I also learned about how important it is to provide natural lighting and mirrors to give a feeling of spaciousness. Seeing a board with toys on display instead of a typical \"treasure chest\" or box filled with toys was also quite interesting."}” data-sheets-userformat=”{"2":6913,"3":{"1":0},"11":4,"12":0,"14":{"1":2,"2":0},"15":"Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"}”>It was interesting to see pictures of different waiting rooms and observe what features of waiting rooms and environments in general elevate or lower anxiety. From this session, I learned that just walking down long empty hallways or even just an elevator ride can provoke anxiety, so it’s useful to have sensory focal points / distractions with some element of patient interaction / control on the walls of the hallways. The Little Bird Pediatric Dentistry office design was so innovative and interesting to learn about! I also learned about how important it is to provide natural lighting and mirrors to give a feeling of spaciousness. Seeing a board with toys on display instead of a typical “treasure chest” or box filled with toys was also quite novel to me. Overall, I learned lots of useful tips and ideas about designing a practice to be both accessible and calming for patients with special healthcare needs.</span>
From this session, I learned a lot about ways to accommodate patients with special healthcare needs in a dental office. This session opened my eyes to the fact that caregivers are often under a lot of stress, and so it’s important for dental providers to provide positive reinforcement and encouragement not only to the patients but also to the caregivers. I also learned how it’s important to collect information beforehand from the caregiver about patients’ communication abilities, past dental experiences, reactions to sensory stimuli, any triggers, and the best times of the day for the best cooperation. I learned that it’s good to have special rooms for patients who may easily be overwhelmed from sensory stimuli. Dr. Duong’s presentation was also filled with valuable information about ways to make the dental visit more comfortable for patients with special needs and about prioritizing realistic treatment goals. Overall, I gained a lot of useful tips from this session that I can see myself implementing in the future as a dental provider.
From this session, I learned how important it is to use motivational interviewing and tools such as OARS to help empower patients and motivate them to take charge in maintaining or improving daily oral hygiene habits. I appreciated being able to hear from the self-advocate about her experiences and how she had difficulties in accessing dental care. From Dr. Shah’s presentation, it was really interesting to learn about the various educational tools that can be used to effectively convey information on oral health in a way that is more easily accessible to all. Overall, this session helped me realize the need for more education among dental students to learn how to be better providers for patients with special healthcare needs.
