Setting

You work in a private dental clinic and are seeing a new patient.

Task

• Introduce yourself and explain what your role is.
• Find out why the patient is attending the clinic today.
• Explore details of the patients dental care regime and provide recommendations for improvement as appropriate.
• Recommend switching to a normal toothbrush for practicality.
• Explain how other things can also affect staining (e.g. food, medication, smoking, trauma, etc.). Find out if the patient has any concerns about these.
• Suggest that the patient reduce their consumption of coffee and junk food. Try to impress on them how important this is.
• Explain to the patient what you can do to reduce the staining on her teeth today (scaling, cleaning, polishing). Find out if the patient has any dental veneers or fillings, and explain why this is important (different surfaces react differently to cleaning, would stand out afterwards and need replacing).
• Find out if the patient has any further questions or would like you to start the cleaning.