Lynn D Carlisle DDS

A book about dentists from a patient's standpoint is long overdue. David Clow has written a must read book for dentists - A Few Words from the Chair, a patient speaks to dentists. I was honored when he asked me to write a foreword to the book. Here is the foreword:

Patients see things differently than dentists. Often, what is important to dentists is not important to patients. This seems like the hysterical discovery of the obvious, but dentists have a blind spot when it comes to seeing things from a patient's viewpoint.

They have a similar blind spot in their ability to communicate with patients. When asked to rate their ability to communicate with patients, 60% of physicians rated themselves in the top 10%. Dentists would probably have similar results.

David Clow's book A Few Words From The Chair, a patient speaks to dentists, does a great job of pointing out these blind spots and how dentists can eliminate them.

David contacted me after he read my book In a Spirit of Caring and googled my website www.spiritofcaring.com . Both my book and web site are on helping dentists build exceptional doctor/patient relationships.

David is a journalist/writer and was in the early stages of writing a book from a patient's viewpoint on dentist's struggles with communicating with patients. Norman Cousins and Cousins' book Anatomy of an Illness influenced him. He wanted to write a similar book for dentists. He asked me to review an early draft of this book and wondered if I thought there is a market for his book. I did and I was very impressed. So were several other people - both dentists and non-dentists - who reviewed this early draft (see acknowledgements). This gave David the stimulus to go ahead and write A Few Words From The Chair, a patient speaks to dentists.

A book about dentists from a patient's standpoint is long overdue.

A book about dentists from a patient's standpoint is long overdue.

Dentistry is often ignored or portrayed like an unwanted stepchild in the media, movies and TV. There are no national associations devoted to curing oral cancer, rampant caries, or advanced periodontal disease. None trumpet the wonders of restoring a person's smile, health and wellness as a result of dentist's knowledge, care, skill and judgment. Grateful patients do not donate millions for a wing of a hospital devoted to dentistry.

Movies portray dentists as sadists or hapless nerds as in Marathon Man, Little Shop of Horrors, The Dentist, 10, The In-Laws, Three Stooges, Waiting for Guffman, Wild Hogs and The Whole Nine Yards. Cruel dentist jokes abound (What are the six scariest words in the English language? "The dentist will see you now." "It was worse than a root canal." "It was like going to the dentist.")

No books are written (glowing or critical) by patients relating their experience with their illnesses and dentistry like Norman Cousins' Anatomy of an Illness and Human Options did with medicine's treatment of him and his disease of ankylosing spondylitis. (These books were published in the late 1970's and early 80's. They are still worth reading or re-reading.)

Until Now.

This void is eliminated by David Clow's book.

In this brief, insightful book, Clow gives an outsider's perception of dentistry as a patient, writer and consultant. His perception hits a bull's eye when he writes that dentists are way off the mark when they ignore the person attached to the teeth and downplay the remarkable things they can do for a patient's health and appearance.

• He thinks you spend too much time on gadgets and marketing at the expense of building caring relationships with patients.

• He thinks you are capable of miracles.

• He believes there is a great crisis in health care and an opportunity for you in preventing disease.

• He also gives his ideas on why dentists sabotage themselves in the public and media's perception.

• He asks enlightening questions about you and your dental practice.

• Moreover, he gives you some ideas about what you can do to bridge the communications gap between you and your patients.

This book will help you see yourself and dentistry through a patient's eyes.

This book will help you see yourself and dentistry through a patient's eyes. Clow's perceptions will surprise you, open your eyes and help you understand your patients and what influences them in their choice of dentists and why they make the decisions they do on accepting or rejecting your recommendations for dental treatment.

This book will help you be a better dentist.

Cousins' books led to a paradigm shift in how medicine viewed its relationships with patients. David Clow's book can do the same for dentistry.

Lynn D Carlisle, DDS Author, In a Spirit of Caring, Understanding and finding meaning in the doctor/patient relationship. Editor and Publisher, www.spiritofcaring.com

To order the book, go to: Amazon.com: A Few Words from the Chair: A Patient Speaks to Dentists: David Clow: Books

Here is an earlier version of my foreword:

Clow Foreword I

Dentisty is often ignored or portrayed like an ugly stepchild in the media, movies and TV. There are no national associations devoted to curing oral cancer, rampant caries, or advanced periodontal disease. None trumpet the wonders of restoring a person's smile, health and wellness as a result of dental treatment. Grateful patients do not donate millions for a wing of a hospital devoted to dentistry.

The movies portray dentists as sadists as in Marathon Man or Little Shop of Horrors. Cruel dentist jokes abound (It was worse than a root canal. It was like going to the dentist.) Dentist are seen as hapless nerds.

No books are written (glowing or critical) by patients relating their experience with their illnesses and dentistry like Norman Cousins' "Anatomy of an Illness" and "Human Options" did with medicine's treatment of him and his disease of arthritis.

This void has been eliminated by David Clow's book "A few words from the chair, a patient speaks to dentists"

In this short, insightful book, Clow gives an outsider's perception of dentistry as a patient, writer and consultant. His perception hits a bull's eye when he writes that dentists are way off the mark when they ignore the person attached to the teeth and downplay the remarkable things they can do for a patient's health and appearance.

The reasons are many for this treatment. Three are prime. The first is the very intimate nature of the oral cavity and the unconscious aversion to anyone treating this exquisitely sensitive area. The second is dentistry's learning disability with obsession with treatment and techniques of dental disease and trauma while ignoring the person attached to the teeth. It treats the person as a vehicle that brings the disease or trauma to them to be treated by its wondrous techniques. The third is that it is not hospital based and does not deal with dramatic life threatening diseases and trauma.

In the above-mentioned "Human Options", Cousins asks this question "What is the most painful and devasting question that can be asked about modern medical practice? It is not whether most doctors are up to date in their knowledge or in their techniques, but whether too many know more about disease than about the person in whom the disease exists." Dentistry has anonymously struggled with the same problem of the importance of the caring doctor/patient relationships. It has also failed to get the word out about its wonders in treatment and prevention. Its blind spot about "the person in whom the disease exists" has prevented it from being known as effective as medicine in confronting these problems.

(Dentistry's accomplishments in preventive dentistry from the 1970's is an example of this. The work of Bob Barkley, L.D. Pankey, Avrom King, Wilson Southam and others on the importance of a focus on health instead of disease and of creating effective caring helping relationships with patients to help them prevent disease and become well was ground breaking. Yet, most dentists today don't even know who they are and what they did. Neither does the rest of health care.)

A Boston Globe quote from 1987 is an exception. "Front page homage and reverence are heaped on organ transplants and other medical high-wire acts. Meanwhile dentistry goes unnoted except as the butt of harebrained television humor. But, it is one of the few health technologies that almost invariably succeeds, both in prevention and in treatment. There is little else in the health care arsenal that can share this claim."

But how many of us have read something similar in the media today?

Very few or none -- until now.

Why is there this blind spot?

There is a thing instead of people orientation. The selection and training of dentists. Dental school's emphasis on science, treatment and techniques. The resultant learning disability dentists have. (Tarantola quote, looking under the wrong lamppost. 60% put themselves in the top ten. Quotes from book..)

Conclusion

Cousins' books led to a paradigm shift in how medicine viewed its relationships with patients. David Clow's book can do the same for dentistry.