Book Description

Organized by the way dental care providers interact with patients, this practical handbook helps anyone working in the dental office to communicate more effectively and improve the quality of care delivered to Spanish-speaking patients. Conveniently sized and easy to use, this valuable resource covers everything from the initial greeting with the patient, to recording the patient's history, assessing the patient's overall health and oral health, and discussing any kind of dental procedure. Even readers with a limited understanding of Spanish grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation will be able to use this guide to formulate explanations, instructions, and questions in Spanish. A companion, audio CD-ROM is included and provides the English to Spanish translation of every phrase in the book. Content covers everything from salutations to case histories and follow up care - in the style dentists and assistants interact with patients. The highly portable, pocket guide format is easy to reference when taking a history or working with a patient. Terminology included in this reference covers the gamut of topics that are essential to effective communication in the dental office - related to both administration and procedures. Clinical exchanges covered in the book include those that deal with the hygiene appointment, the dentist's preventive checkup, taking x-rays, and treatment planning. More specific phrases are found on the specialty dental visits - including periodontics, endodontics, orthodontics, prosthodontics, and cosmetic dentistry - as well as front office exchanges between a patient and the business assistant. Content covers speaking to pediatric patients and includes more simplistic language. Informal expressions provide more casual phrases to use with the patient. A comprehensive glossary offers an English to Spanish list of common words and phrases divided by categories - such as days of the week, interrogative questions, common dental terms, and other terms in common use that are not necessarily related to dentistry. Each English phrase appears in boldface type, and beneath the English phrase is the same phrase in Spanish, not in boldface. Several versions of equivalent expressions are provided to ensure that individuals with different styles of communication will be able to select the expressions that they like best.