Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, King's College London, London, UK.
Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2023 Oct;51(5):887-895. doi: 10.1111/cdoe.12783. Epub 2022 Aug 14.
Dentists and other members of the dental team could raise awareness by talking about oral cancer during routine dental check-ups. A communication guide has been developed to facilitate this. However, it has been suggested that discussions about oral cancer may raise patients' anxiety and this has been documented by dentists as a barrier to having these conversations. The current research aimed to investigate implementation of the communication guide and its impact on the dental patient.
A consecutive-case sample of adult dental patients attending primary dental care for a routine NHS check-up at one dental practice were invited to take part in the study via letter prior to their appointment. Consultations of participating patients (n = 77) were audio-recorded. Before and after their appointment, patients were asked to rate their current anxiety via the six-item version of Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Audio recordings of each consultation were reviewed by two raters to determine the extent to which the dentist covered the topics recommended in the communication guide.
The dentist informed all patients that they were being checked for oral cancer, spoke about signs and symptoms, and discussed risk factors. However, they rarely recommended where help should be sought or addressed barriers to seeking help. Discussions took an average of 95 s. The extent to which oral cancer was discussed did not correlate with patients' post-appointment anxiety. Patients made positive or neutral responses to the discussions. The few questions that were asked were easily addressed.
As findings are based on one dentist working at one practice, generalization of these results should be cautious. The study indicated that using an evidence-based guide to talk about oral cancer did not appear to raise patients' anxiety in this practice population. This could help to increase awareness of oral cancer in the endeavour to facilitate early cancer diagnosis.
牙医和其他牙科团队成员可以通过在常规牙科检查中谈论口腔癌来提高意识。已经开发出一种沟通指南来促进这一点。然而，有人认为，谈论口腔癌可能会增加患者的焦虑，这一点已被牙医记录下来，认为这是进行这些对话的障碍。目前的研究旨在调查沟通指南的实施情况及其对牙科患者的影响。
通过信件邀请在一家牙科诊所接受常规 NHS 检查的成年牙科患者参加研究，这是一个连续病例样本。参与患者（n=77）的咨询会被录音。在预约前和预约后，患者被要求通过 Spielberger 状态-特质焦虑量表的六分量表评估他们当前的焦虑程度。每位患者的咨询录音由两位评分员进行审查，以确定牙医在多大程度上涵盖了沟通指南中推荐的主题。
牙医告知所有患者他们正在接受口腔癌检查，讨论了口腔癌的症状和体征，并讨论了风险因素。然而，他们很少建议在哪里寻求帮助或解决寻求帮助的障碍。讨论平均用时 95 秒。讨论的程度与患者预约后的焦虑程度无关。患者对讨论做出了积极或中立的反应。提出的几个问题很容易得到解决。
由于这些发现基于一位牙医在一家诊所的工作，因此应该谨慎推广这些结果。该研究表明，在这个实践人群中，使用基于证据的指南来谈论口腔癌似乎不会增加患者的焦虑。这有助于提高对口腔癌的认识，以促进早期癌症诊断。
