Section 2: Dental Partnership Activities

Innovations in Patient Education

The most common techniques used to impart dental education to patients include one-on-one discussions during dental appointments covering such like preventive care (e.g. maintaining good oral hygiene and having regular appointments for exam and cleaning) and the importance of adherence to HIV care plans including staying on medication schedules.

• Smoking Cessation Education. Smoking cessation education is also fairly common among funded Partnerships. Typically, patients are referred to tobacco cessation programs in operation in the community. One example is found in Louisiana, where patients are asked about tobacco use and are asked if they wish to contact the State’s Tobacco Cessation Initiative, where individual and group sessions and medications are provided.
• Literature. Printed items used to educate clients are ubiquitous and cover topics like home care instructions for periodontal conditions, dentures and partial dentures, brushing and flossing, treatment descriptions for procedures, and disease-related materials for AIDS and diabetes.
• Software. Other methods used include use of the CAESY patient education software by two projects, Boston University and Lutheran Medical Center. CAESY comprises computer based educational models. A director at Lutheran reports that the “bilingual and interactive nature of CAESY system is ideally suited for the patients since it allows users of all literacy levels to participate in the computer educational modules in either English or Spanish.”