614: 50 Shades of Grey: Strategies for Co-diagnosis, Early Treatment, and Patient Engagement of Periodontal Disease - Angela Heathman - a podcast by ACT Dental

50 Shades of Grey: Strategies for Co-diagnosis, Early Treatment, and Patient Engagement of Periodontal Disease

Episode #614 with Angela Heathman

No one suddenly has a seven-millimeter pocket. It happens gradually, often without patients knowing it! Once you identify and diagnose periodontal disease, you also need to communicate it to your patients. To help you follow through with that responsibility, Kirk Behrendt brings back Angela Heathman, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, with strategies to facilitate co-diagnosis and getting them into the schedule. To start prescribing treatment for better health and a better life, listen to Episode 614 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

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Links Mentioned in This Episode:

Register for Katrina Sanders’s workshop (October 5-6, 2023)

Main Takeaways:

Have a common language for talking about periodontal disease.

Understand what co-diagnosis is and how to do it with patients.

Tell patients what to expect before their periodontal screening.

You have a responsibility to tell patients what you're seeing.

Don't wait for patients to have a seven-millimeter pocket!

Quotes:

“It's really important, I think, to start with figuring out the language you guys are going to use when you're talking about periodontal disease. Everybody needs to be using the same language, using the same visuals, understanding that we're going to go through a co-diagnosis with the patient, doing intraoral photos. We have to really figure out how we're going to diagnose and talk to our patients before we start talking about treatment at all.” (5:19—5:45)

“It’s funny, sometimes I talk about the mouth, and then the patient. It's really easy to diagnose the mouth, and then it gets a little bit more complicated when the patient comes into it. And then, we have to think about, ‘How are we going to communicate? How are we going to explain? How are we going to diagnose?’ and everything. But you're right, Kirk. First, we have to think about if this mouth walked in, what would the appropriate care be for this pocketing, this bone loss, everything that we're seeing? So, if we can get really clear on that using staging and grading and very objective criteria, then we go into the second part, working with the patient, a little bit easier if we're completely aligned on that part.” (6:20—7:02)

“The first part is having everybody in the office figure out how to co-diagnose with their patients. When I say co-diagnose, I don't want to be telling the patient after I've...

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