Objective: Effective doctor-patient communication plays an important role in efficient delivery of healthcare services. The purpose of this study was to determine dental patients’ knowledge of various terms used in oral and maxillofacial surgery.
Method: A questionnaire containing 15 commonly used terms and their accompanying definitions were presented to general practice patients (N=74, 30 male, 44 female, ages 19-82) and oral surgery patients (N=39, 19 male, 20 female, ages 18-78), who were asked if the definitions were correct or incorrect. Their total scores were then correlated to age, gender and education.
Results: The questions most frequently missed related to flap, hemorrhage, and local anesthesia. The questions most frequently answered correctly related to extraction, incision, and fractured jaw. The general practice patients were significantly more knowledgeable than oral surgery patients missing less questions (p=0.0318). Females missed less questions than males in the oral surgery group and more questions than males in the general practice group but neither group was significantly different (p>0.35). Patients 41-45 years had the highest mean correct answers (11.8) and patients 31-35 years had the lowest mean correct answers (8.1). Patients with “some college” or a “college degree or higher” answered significantly more questions correctly than those who reported “less than high school” or “high school” education (p=0.0005). In an adjusted model including age, gender, education and practice, only education was significant for correctly answered questions (p=0.0097).
Conclusion: Communication between patients and doctors can be complicated by the overuse of technical terminology, complex medical phrases or clinical jargon. Practitioners need to be acutely aware of this, in conjunction with the patient’s education, when discussing surgical procedures or obtaining informed consent.