Emotion-led dentistry: Injecting life back into practice

In this day and age, the world of dentistry is driven by compliance, legislation, technology and UDAs. Dental teams are fearful of the General Dental Council (GDC), the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and other powers that can come crashing down on them at any time. Patients have extremely high expectations that are fuelled by the media and legislative organisations expressing themselves in the public domain. Dental teams are exasperated by systems, technology and the hype for compliance perfection.

I am not saying that governance is a bad thing as it raises standards and provides guidance for best practice. But what about the human element? Where has that gone? The drive to raise governance standards and comply with legislation is detracting from the delivery of care, a genuine connection with the patient and their fundamental needs. I meet dental teams day in, day out, who are highly frustrated with the current dental climate. They just want to get back to the basics of delivering dignified, respectful dental care in an environment where patients’ feelings and emotional requirements are top of the priority list, not compliance.