Dental Staffs’ Experiences of “Difficult” Patients

Objectives: Dental staff encounters from and to patients experienced as "difficult". These patients are theorised to affect the dental staff in different ways and induce unwanted feelings, thoughts and behaviours, such as discomfort, frustration and stress.
The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of dental staffs’ experiences of “difficult” patients. Who are they? What distinguishes these patients from other patients? In what way do they affect the dental staff?
Methods: Ten informants consisting of dentists, dental hygienists and dental nurses from various public dental clinics in the region of Västra Götaland, Sweden, were strategically selected and interviewed after giving informed consent. All interviews were audio recorded. Transcriptions of the in-depth interviews were analysed in line with the principles of qualitative content analysis.
Results: The study result indicates that “difficult” patients are perceived to have deficiencies in the ability to interplay; including subcategories described as difficulties in communication and understanding, lack of compliance and cooperation and difficulties in trust and respect for the dental staff and their professional competence. Another characteristic of “difficult” patients is the need for longer treatment times, which in turn can lead to unforeseen treatment delays. This altogether affects the dental staffs’ thoughts, feelings and behaviours negatively, which further influences their abilities to get to know and treat “difficult” patients.
Conclusions: “Difficult” patients are patients difficult to treat and help, as they affect the dental staff negatively. The findings contribute to new understanding of “difficult” patients in dentistry by an interactionist approach. This indicates that the experience of “difficult” patients results from complex interactions rather than attributing to specific groups of patients, medical conditions or treatment procedures.