Dental Complaints

As a dental patient, there may be times when you have dental complaints about a student, staff or other school personnel, but are unsure of how to proceed.

If you find yourself in a situation that causes you to become upset, do not respond in anger. People who seem rude or unprofessional, tend to act this way as a result of their own unhappiness with their lives. Your becoming defensive and angry only gives them a reason to continue to act out badly. They are simply feeding on your emotions. Instead of reacting, calmly remove yourself from their presence or ask to speak with someone who can help you. In a dental school setting, the person you may initially speak with is a clinic manager or facilitator.

Give the person you speak to unbiased information. They need to handle the conflict by understanding what is happening. They may speak to you (and the other person), with open-ended questions. Asking open-ended questions allows us a way to put a conflict in perspective because it offers background information. A person's perspective of what is significant in a given situation is usually the reason behind their actions.

In your discussion, try to make a distinction between the problem and the person, refraining from blaming and voicing negative opinions about that individual. Placing blame, accusations and negative opinions is counter-productive. Just provide clear, straight forward and concrete information, indicating how you feel and want the outcome to be. Any opinions and emotions which you offer should only be expressed in ways that facilitates the process of achieving a satisfactory outcome. Then, invite the person to help you with finding a solution. Formulate the issues as a shared problem that can be solved in a cooperative manner between all parties (you, the manager and the individual at the center of the dental complaint).

If the individual is invited into the discussions with you, extend appreciation and respect for the person where you can do so in a sincere manner. Make it easy for your them to be constructive. Avoid putting them on the defensive by blaming, accusing and criticizing their behavior. Show empathy for their feelings without allowing yourself to be provoked by their attacks. Show the person that you care about the issues and needs that are important to him/her. If warranted, take responsibility for your own contributions to the conflict. As a dental patient, it is important to remain open to learning new things about yourself and how others perceive you.

If you reach amicable resolution, attempt to maintain contact with the individual. Sometimes a break in contact leads to the problem escalating. Do what you can to keep the communication going. This may involve something as simple as saying hello to the individual at your next dental appointment. The key is to work on improving the relationship, while you are a dental patient at the facility. Remember that other individuals work day to day with this person, and may be facing similar conflict issues. Only they have to work even harder to improve their relationship with that person.

If the issue you are facing is related to an error made during an actual procedure, there are remedies and solutions to these types of dental complaints as well. Learn how to handle these types of situations here.