S5 E01: Keeping your team safe: Workplace Violence and Keeping Your Team Safe

Wright: [00:00:00] All right, we're kicking off season five of Dental Sound Bites with a very important topic, which is dealing with the growing episodes of workplace violence and learning how to keep your dental team safe. I'm Dr. ArNelle Wright.

Ioannidou: [00:00:14] And I'm Dr. Effie Ioannidou. Today, what you need to know to equip yourself and your team with the tools to de-escalate and to resolve violent situations.

So interesting, right?

Wright: [00:00:27] Yeah. So interesting.

Ioannidou: [00:00:29] So, so interesting, so important. And it's, it's really weird that it's so frequent.

Wright: We're going to get into it today.

Announcer: [00:00:37] From the American Dental Association, this is Dental Sound Bites, created for dentists by dentists. Ready? Let's dive right into real talk on dentistry's daily wins and sticky situations.

Wright: [00:00:54] This episode is sponsored by Fidelity Investments. Do your patients know a health savings account can help them save on qualified dental expenses? Well, Fidelity has the resources to help your patients learn all about an HSA. Just visit fidelity.com/HSAcanhelp.

Ioannidou: [00:01:11] Yeah.

Wright: [00:01:12] Hello. Friends. We are so happy to be back for season five of Dental Sound Bites.

Ioannidou: [00:01:18] I'm so excited. And we have a new season full of so many interesting topics, fascinating guests. Now you can watch every episode, not just hear it because we are launching a video podcast on the ADA’s YouTube channel. Yeah, baby.

Wright: [00:01:36] Yeah I know, so if you want to be a part of our Dental Sound Bites family, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you listen and stay updated with every new episode.

So Effie, what have you been up to during this little break that we've had?

Ioannidou: [00:01:51] Oh my God, I don't even remember that we had a break. I know, like, I feel like I have been working 24/7. We finally relocated to San Francisco. We got a new place. We are super excited. Uh, but it's very, has been very busy, like August, September, right?

Wright: [00:02:08] Yeah.

Yeah. Same.

Ioannidou: [00:02:09] It's crazy.

Wright: [00:02:10] It's been busy. Same for me.

Ioannidou: [00:02:12] I took vacation the beginning of June when I went back home to Greece.

Wright: Yeah.

Ioannidou: And I, I think that it was last year. I don't even have memories of this.

Wright: [00:02:21] It does feel like it's been forever ago.

Ioannidou: [00:02:23] How was your vacation?

Wright: [00:02:25] Vacation? I think it's just been nonstop, but I became president of my local dental society here in Orlando.

I know. So I'm like, I feel, you know, I'm just following in y'all's footsteps. steps. And so I did have a little bit of time at the beach near the water. You guys know that's how I recharge. And so I'm really ready to get back into the swing of things.

Ioannidou: [00:02:45] Oh, that's great. I'm super excited to be back with you again.

I'm so excited. I'm so excited that we will be seeing each other. I know.

Wright: [00:02:54] Yes. Recording live at SmileCon everybody. So we hope to see you there in the live audience. That's going to be amazing.

Ioannidou: [00:03:00] Exactly. Yeah. So today we have a topic we really need to talk about. Recently, there have been some scary headlines in the news regarding situations where dentists and other health care providers had to deal with aggressive patients.

You know, when I started thinking about this, I remember like, The old, uh, Grey's Anatomy episodes where aggressive patients storm in the hospitals, you know, and things go south, right?

And you thought that this, I mean, at least I thought that these things happen only on TV, but not really, right?

Wright: [00:03:37] Yeah, you're right.

So seeing those headlines can really put us all on edge. Our guest today has unfortunately experienced some aggressive patient encounters and is here to share how she prepares her team to deescalate and resolve these situations. Welcome to the show, Dr. Ann Blue.

Blue: [00:03:54] Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm so super, super excited to discuss this important topic.

Wright: Very important.

Ioannidou: [00:04:00] Dr. Blue, we are so glad to have you here and such an interesting topic. So, tell us a little bit about you and your background and how did you end up having an interest in this?

Blue: [00:04:12] So, I practice in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I serve on the ADA Council on Communications, and I've been on the Trends Report portion of the council.

So, uh, you know, that trend report that comes out every year. This is, I believe, our fifth year, and we basically look for trends that whatever is happening with our dentists across the nation, and so that's how we kind of got into this topic. I'm a periodontist and implant specialist. I've been practicing for 25 years, obviously a lot of patient experiences.

I also teach at the dental school here at Midwestern and so, you know, have a lot of different types of patient interactions and we wanted to see where are the headlines coming from. Is this a trend? And, uh, we decided to explore this topic on our survey this year.

Wright: [00:05:00] Yeah.

Ioannidou: [00:05:01] How interesting, ArNelle, right? You're surrounded by periodontists.

Wright: [00:05:05] Periodontists. I know. I know. I was thinking that. I was like, you know what?

Ioannidou: [00:05:09] No, that's too much. Too much period.

Wright: [00:05:13] No, it's perfect. Um, so you mentioned the trend report and survey data from the 2024 ADA's Council on Communications trend report found that more than half of responding ADA member dentists sometimes or oftentimes encounter aggressive patients.

So Dr. Blue, can you tell us a little bit more about the findings of this report and really what that means for our profession?

Blue: [00:05:36] Yeah. So since 2020, we know that there's been a lot of different types of trends. There's definitely more, you know, anxiety, our, our dentists are seeing. are experiencing more anxiety.

And with the headlines, like you guys mentioned, there were three very unfortunate incidences, um, with dentists where, you know, the dentists were either, you know, dentists were killed in two of the, um, incidences. And one of the dentists is probably either disfigured or disabled or both.

The one incident that happened this year was in California and happened to be my hometown El Cajon, California. Um, and, uh, the incidents happened within five miles of where I grew up. And so, uh, it just hits, you know, it hit home.

So, you know, we decided to do this survey, um, and what we found was, you know, fifth over. There's. 50 percent 51 percent of our dentists, um, are have experienced an aggressive patient.

The, we went on and asked another question from those, from those dentists that, uh, experienced aggressive patient, you know, how many of them felt like that their stuff, their safety was jeopardized and, you know, almost a third, 30 percent of that, uh, felt that their safety, um, you know, we know that the younger dentists.

Um, younger, younger female dentists, especially feel more, um, intimidated by these patients. Um, uh, they've had more aggressive, um, uh, situations, FHQHC, uh, offices, uh, faculty at dental schools, um, uh, had a little bit higher incidence than, you know, some of the private practice. Uh, so we identified the trend. That's definitely an issue. And we wanted it to be an issue that the ADA addressed with our dentists out there.

Ioannidou: [00:07:20] I mean, this is so, that's so interesting and so important. And we will definitely have the report in our show notes, but tell us a little bit how, what kind, what kind of symptoms or warnings or signs did you, they're not symptoms, it's not a disease, but what kind of warnings do you observe?

And what should we look for when a patient becomes a little bit agitated or upset based on your experience and based on the survey that you have reviewed.

Blue: [00:07:50] Yeah, that's a good question. So you know, there's usually verbal and nonverbal cues. So the verbal cues are usually the ones that we identify, you know, those, those are pretty apparent.

You know, when a patient starts raising their voice at you, you know, starts yelling, they start cursing at you, you know, um, uh, never good in a situ... in a professional situation with that. But the nonverbal cues usually are the ones that will probably come a little bit before the verbal, before it gets to that level.

And those are the ones I think that's important that we identify and we pick up on when the patient's sitting with us or you know, the patient's talking to you either on the phone or in the reception area. So the nonverbal cues are like, you know, sometimes a patient will, you know, uh, you know, if they roll their eyes at you, you know, it's never good when anybody rolls their eyes at you. When my children rolls their eyes at me, I know that things are not going well. So definitely with a patient, that's not a good sign.

They'll start turning red. They'll maybe start, you know, if you see their, you know, their fists are starting to get clenched or, you know, if they slap the desk or they, you know, they start moving around in the dental chair, you know, you'll see patients, you know, they'll grab their bib and they'll tear it off, you know, when they're frustrated.

So if you can start seeing any of that developing initially, that's much better to identify, um, you know, and then you have to also identify, you know, are they rational with what they're, how they're behaving? Are they rational? Are they irrational? Cause that's important to identify very quickly, uh, with that or signs of mental illness too.

I mean, unfortunately that is becoming more of a problem.

Wright: [00:09:18] Honestly, just gave me a little bit of like. Heart palpitations, like thinking about some of the signs that you described, because I can think of some instances and we'll, we'll get to it later on in the conversation back into think of a few instances where I'm like, “mhm” and it's one of those things where in my practice setting, I'm always talking about these things where I, I have conversations with the patients, especially new patient encounters.

And I believe that if you talk to the patients long enough, they will help you decide on whether you should, you know, engage in that patient relationship or not. And so I, I know that you have had to deal with some scary situations at work. Would you be willing to just share a little bit of those scenarios? Tell us what happened and we can learn from your story.

Blue: [00:10:04] Yeah. So, you know, probably the scariest situation actually happened more with my husband. My husband is also a dentist. He's an orthodontist and he happened to have, the patient was not the actual issue. It was actually the patient's parent. Um, so, you know, he started ortho on, uh, on the patient and, you know, and about three, four months in, the office got a phone call from mom and, you know, mom was talking about how there was listening devices on the patient, you know, then the office called and spoke to dad and dad was like, you know, mom is a little bit, you know, sometimes there's a little bit off of her medications, not to worry and so forth.

Fast forward to about a year in treatment, my husband's office manager grabs him and, you know, we were at home and so I was, you know, there, uh, and she's like, you need to listen to this message. And this mom had escalated things to the point where she was actually threatening on the message. So she was, you know, she talked about the listening devices and said how he, um, uh, you know, somehow enjoyed listening to her daughter throughout the day and so forth with that.

And how would my husband feel if our children, and so she named off my children's names. Um, and that, that. was really scary because nowhere in any of our websites anywhere and she named off each child and, uh, you know, and was like, you know, how would you feel if listening to her to this, to your children, all of that.

And so she had taken that level of, you know, maybe, you know, she's a little off to, um, an escalated it to a level of where it was threatening. But because of that, you know, we, you know, we talked about it and, you know, and I was like, I'm not good with this. I'm not good with somebody that went through all this research to figure out our children's names and calling out our name, their names and so forth.

So we took the extra steps, you know, we decided that we wanted to have my husband disengaged from this patient relationship as best as possible. Now he's almost done with ortho. He actually just went ahead and, you know, he refunded the family, the money that they paid, refunded the insurance. took off the brackets, you know, called dad, explained everything, took off the brackets, put the patient in retainers. That way she could go and finish her ortho with somebody else. And then we decided to, um, also go ahead and, um, uh, get law enforcement involved and, and I even talked to my kid's school and I was like, okay, this person is not allowed anywhere near, this is not somebody that we, um, uh, trust and so forth with that because she had taken it to that next level and we needed to have a little more, um, uh, we needed law enforcement. So it's important to recognize when maybe somebody is just a little off to somebody is not stable at all mentally stable because the incidences that have happened in the news are, these patients are not mentally stable. And, uh, so we wanted to nip things in the bud and we wanted to disengage from that whole relationship with her.

Um, and it was unfortunate for the patient, obviously, but it was, it was the right thing to do for us and for our family.

Ioannidou: [00:13:06] Wow, that's like unbelievable.

Wright: I know, we're both like, uh...

Ioannidou: Access to this, uh, information is not that easy. So someone really digged in at the time they had to really dig in to find out your family details, your kids. I mean, this is like, wow.

Blue: [00:13:23] Yeah. I mean, like I said, I had two children in school, one that wasn't in school, so I don't even know how she got her name.

Ioannidou: [00:13:30] Scary, right?

Wright: [00:13:31] Yeah, that's crazy.

You know what else I, I pick up on in this moment is like thinking about where we were as a society concerning mental health and, and, and, you know, well-being as well, you know what I mean?

So even though, like, the family kind of said, you know, I don't know, just passing by like, Oh, you know, she can be a little off sometimes. It's kind of like, well, you know, we should be a little more prepared than that. You know, like how off is this going? You know what I mean? And it went off very quickly. It seems.

Unfortunately.

Blue: [00:14:04] Right, right. It was enough to cause both of us to be concerned and it was enough for the office manager to say, “Hey, you need to listen to this” and recognize because the office manager could have ignored. I mean, we don't listen to our messages, the office manager, you know, or whoever it is. But it's important for the staff to recognize that somebody can be more of a threat.

Wright: [00:14:25] Did you have any conversations with your teams after that, like the rest of the staff? Like what kind of process did you all go through with the team to, to talk about that in like a safe way with the team?

Blue: [00:14:38] Well, it's important for the team. I mean, the team needs to be able to recognize when a patient may not be as stable. I mean, and so it's important, you know, especially for the new team members, new and younger team members. So I'm very lucky that I, you know, I've had my team for years and years. And so we, I'm not going to say we're old, but we're a little more seasoned to recognize when, um, you know, maybe a patient's a little different. Like, you know, you, you, you get to know your patients and you know, if it's a new patient, you obviously don't have a baseline, but if you do have a baseline and that patient's starting to veer from that baseline, then, you know, that's. That's a red flag.

You know, and our team is trained. I mean, you know, if a patient's complaining about something and so forth, um, it's brought to my attention just because of the fact that then, you know, that's a great way of not, you know, de-escalating issues and so forth and catching on that there might be something that can be a concern with this particular patient.

Ioannidou: [00:15:34] I mean, this is very, this is very important what you just mentioned, the fact that the team has to be trained, right? And I was actually ready to ask you about this, how you prepare the team to handle the situations and you brought up the training, I guess, when every new member that comes into the team needs to be calibrated, right?

And with the, based on the philosophy that the practice has and the way that you identify these aggressive patients, because everybody's threshold is very different.

Blue: [00:16:03] Right, right,

Ioannidou: [00:16:04] Right.

Wright: [00:16:05] Very true, very true.

Ioannidou: [00:16:07] Culturally, for example, I take aggressive patients way, I'm way more tolerant than others. Uh, I think that, you know, I'm very, we have this Mediterranean sparkle, right?

So, I mean, we are, uh, we are agitated. We were born agitated, so, yeah. So I'm, I'm, I have a very high tolerance and, and perhaps many times I could miss signs of, uh, uh, or misinterpret. So I think this is really important of how you, you, how you calibrate the members.

Blue: [00:16:40] Right.

Wright: [00:16:41] We'll be right back.

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Wright: [00:17:39] Welcome back to Dental Sound Bites. We're having a conversation about workplace safety with Dr. Ann Blue.

Ioannidou: [00:17:46] What are the techniques or the measures that you and your team implement? Like in case that you have an aggressive, really an agitated person in the practice.

Blue: [00:17:58] There are certain things that you have to do, that you have to maintain.

So, you know, if a patient's being aggressive, let's say they're being loud or they're, you know, they're obviously, um, upset about something, it's important to try to de-escalate. And so how do you de-escalate?

You have to remain calm. So, you know, uh, you have to be calm and you have to listen. Listening is very important.

You know, we did the, the trend survey asking the dentist about have they dealt with these aggressive patients, but then we also ask the consumers, are you frustrated with your dentist? And you know, the number one answer there, they can be frustrated with their dentist and they're frustrated because of the fact that the dentist is not listening to them.

Ioannidou: [00:18:35] Wow, that's very right.

Blue: [00:18:37] So, you know, the number one technique. Yes. So that's the number one technique is to remain calm and to listen, you know, listen with empathy, you know, let the patient complete their entire thought, you know, it may, it may be ready to try to develop, don't develop an answer. Just listen is very, very, very important.

So that's probably the number one technique and be empathetic. Repeat after them, you know, repeat what they've said to you, then you can respond back, but they have to feel heard. If they feel heard, they're more likely to, um, that's going to calm them down and it calms down the whole situation. That's our main technique.

And then, you know, another way is communicating to patients. Um, you know, if you communicate ahead of time, you know, we, a lot of times we're excited about doing the work. But we've got to explain things that can be a problem after the work is done, you know, and you know, you know, being a periodontist, I'm a surgeon, you know, they're going to have root sensitivity after I do a surgery, you know, they could have crown margins show and so forth with all of that.

Isn't it better to tell them about the risks and communicate those risks ahead of time, you know, and if they don't happen, great. That's great. But you know, you do an extraction. I usually tell them they're going to be in pain for two weeks. Now, are they really going to be in pain for two weeks? Probably not.

But if they are, then they expect it. And rather than, you know, them coming back in and being upset with you because they're in pain or they're re their teeth are sensitive or suddenly you can see those crown margins. So if you can effectively communicate and the whole office effectively communicates risks and so forth beforehand and communicates with these patients, that's going to be much better because then you avoid that whole patient being upset.

But if they are upset, you've got to be able to listen to them. That's really, really very important. And then, you know, obviously be able to set boundaries, you know, if they're yelling at you and they're, you know, they're cursing at you, um, you know, we always ask them politely, can you please not yell and can you please not curse at us? You know, and start setting those boundaries.

And if it continues on and that obviously, uh, you know, the, my other team members come in and, you know, we'll try to, you know, help them. The one team member or, you know, if it's me, I'll be coming in and trying to do that. And then obviously, if it doesn't, you know, things don't improve and things are escalating, then, you know, then that's maybe where we call security or, you know, we can call, you know, if a patient gets to that level.

But typically, you know, patients are not, you know, you have to assume that they're just upset. And they're upset because they're not being heard.

Wright: [00:21:04] Yeah, I agree with that 100%. I feel like a long time ago, I learned that the greatest human need is to be heard. It's like a toss up between to be heard and to be understood.

And so now I have that in the back of my head, my head all the time, especially in those like high stress, like encounters and I don't win and hit the mark every single time. So for everybody out there, I'm not like perfect, but the listening piece is so important. You will be surprised how you can de-escalate so quickly just by kind of, and I do this thing where, when I just want to talk, I just put my hand over my mouth to keep myself from talking.

Blue: [00:21:43] Yeah, right. Because you don't want to be defensive because if you're defensive, you're not listening. So yeah, I mean, you just have to listen. Maybe nod your head, you know, and and do that, you know, and at least that way they feel like they're being heard. And if they're rational, that really brings the situation to a manageable level.

Ioannidou: [00:22:03] Do you ever use a term like, uh, okay, I hear you, but can you please calm down?

Wright: [00:22:09] Ooh, that's a tough one.

Ioannidou: [00:22:11] Is this appropriate?

Blue: [00:22:13] So I don't, I don't say the calming down. I usually will just say, you know, you know, so I, I can, I understand your concerns. And, you know, and like I said, it's just the eye contact and I think it's also, you know, very important when I, I actually sit when I talk to patients, I don't stand above them. Um, uh, you know, I want to make sure that there's no, you know, there's that we're in a level field and so forth with that and, you know, and then also like, you know, if the patient's at the front desk, my staff will stand up and just say, “hey, I hear you” and then, you know, go from there with that. I don't know if I'd want to say, can you please calm down?

Wright: [00:22:49] Yeah, I feel like that is, yeah, it's triggering to some people.

Ioannidou: [00:22:53] Yeah. No, I know for sure. It's my favorite expression. I use it with my kids all the time. Like calm down.

Wright: [00:23:01] Right? What I feel like I hear too, is that you're saying like, we should, or you can respond like, should we validate some of what they're saying? Or does that? Cause I feel like dentists, we get a little touchy on whether we want to validate, especially because we're afraid of any type of medical legal trouble that we could get into. So it's kind of like, if we agree with them, then it's like an admission of guilt. You know what I mean? That's kind of like something that I think about often.

Blue: [00:23:29] Well, I always like, I won't say, “oh, you're, you're right”. I will usually say, “so what I hear you saying is that this and this, this is what you've said.” So I kind of reiterate what they've said. So it also gives them a chance to cool down a little bit when you're saying that. And it's like, and if there's something you didn't understand, then they can come back and explain.

But usually it's just, it's just, just by listening and then, you know, then that's a conversation again, versus it being, you know, somebody raising their voice and yelling at you.

Wright: [00:23:56] I get so interested in this topic, but so then how, cause here's my struggle, right? So it's almost like we have to have a therapy session for the patients and hold space for them. Right? And, and what I'm immediately thinking after these encounters is. How do I know I can trust you now? Cause like, you know, you took it there and now we're back down. Like if I'm back in your good graces, how long will I stay there? You know what I mean? So then it becomes the decision on, do we continue on this, you know, journey together? Or do we just kind of completely part ways? I've parted ways with some patients, you know, but there are those different ones where it's just like, it was just a moment. And you know, for me, I'm like, I just need to trust you as much as you need to trust me. Right?

Blue: [00:24:40] Right. Right. And that's, that's very true.

It's important to know, uh, you know, you have to trust your gut.

Wright: [00:24:45] Yeah.

Blue: [00:24:46] Um, is this person going to come back the next time and, um, you know, uh, have a weapon or something with that? So it depends on how things end and I always, like I said, sometimes I'm, I will say, “you know, maybe I'm not the right person for you.”

Um, or this, you know, if you're going to continue on with care, these are going to be the outcomes that are going to happen and I can't make or change these outcomes. I'm dealing with the situation we're dealing with ,you know, it's periodontal disease, you know, I didn't create it. It is what it is and sometimes it's unfortunate that, you know, that we're having to deal with it and treatment is not necessarily easy, so...

Ioannidou: [00:25:23] Yeah, for sure.

Wright: [00:25:24] So, Dr. Blue, can you tell our audience what are some things that you absolutely should not do when you're dealing with an upset patient?

Blue: [00:25:31] All right. So some of them may be the obvious things. Obviously, don't raise your voice at them. Somebody needs to stay calm in this situation. And that needs to be the dentist and the team.

Um, you know, we never raise our voices no matter how loud they get. We definitely don't curse at them even though they're cursing at us. Um, and, uh, you know, try to remain not defensive. You know, you cannot be defensive. Um, I think, like I said, we just, you need to stay calm and just listen. And obviously if that is not working, then from there we need to, you know, try, you know, all the other techniques and if that doesn't work, then we need to take it to that next level where we might need to call security. But, um, most cases, if you just stay calm and, uh, just do that, you're usually going to be in a good situation.

Ioannidou: [00:26:15] What about the other patients that happen to be in the office?

I'm sure that it becomes scary for witnesses, you know, when witness, when, when, when someone witnesses an aggressive patient, but how do you recommend handling that? And also. You know, that wouldn't be weird if, uh, again, in other cultures, a witness would always have opinions, you know, I mean, for example, I'm taking you back to the Mediterranean, like one person argues, everybody argues.

But I guess again, cultural differences, right? So how do you address this? How do you try to isolate the area and how do you protect the other patients?

Blue: [00:26:56] So you know, if it's a, you know, a patient out in the reception area, what my staff will do is, you know, if they're talking to the patient, let's say I'm running behind, they're upset about the fact that I'm running behind and, you know, and so forth with that, um, or, you know, and they start getting a little bit louder.

A lot of times what we'll do is we'll move them into another room like, uh, we have a consult room and so we'll move them into another room, um, you know, and, you know, sit them down. Hey, can I get you some water? Let me talk to you. Um, and so just kind of just changing that situation, getting them away from the other patients because, you know, the last thing they want to do is be a spectacle either, but they were obviously creating a, an issue and, you know, just changing that situation sometimes will do it. And then, you know, if it's something I need to address, I'll come in and I'll talk to the patient, but it's at least a quieter setting. I'll sit down and it just seems that just seems to take things to that other level. Um, where the, then they're away from the other patients, the other patients are safer, you know, um, and you know, we've never had anyone that's real, it was like aggressive where like we were worried about our, our, uh, safety with them, um, out in the reception area.

But the, that just at least gets, gets them out of there and then nobody's listening to the, to the conversation the same way so .

Ioannidou: [00:28:07] Yeah. Yeah.

Wright: [00:28:08] We also have a, another side in our practice where we can bring patients that's not on the same side as like, where the consultations or the exams and things happen.

So, like, if one of the, like, our code is pretty much like, if we know, like, their demeanor or their temperament in times past, and they're coming into the practice, we'll be like, okay, well, why don't we, like, have them come on this side so that we can have a little bit more privacy with them. And sometimes what I do is, sometimes I will bring certain patients in because I know there are certain patients who just want to talk to me, or if they're upset about something, sometimes they just don't want a staff member and it's nothing against the staff, sometimes they just want to be with like the decision maker.

I don't know. Do you, do you all think that that's wise for me to put myself in that thing? Or, but I kind of just feel like that helps that keeps it de-escalated from the beginning, as opposed to like putting it off on somebody else. You know what I mean?

Ioannidou: [00:29:05] Oh, for sure.

Blue: [00:29:06] Yeah. I mean, you have to kind of match patients. I mean, some of our patients we match, um, just, you know, based on who deals better with them. I mean, because, you know, there might be one assistant that, um, has more of a rapport with the patient than another patient. Um, and so, you know, it's just, everybody's a little different.

Some patients are more difficult and we have one assistant that seems to do better with the more difficult patients compared to, you know, uh, with the, you know, the other assistant as well. I mean, each patient, you know, uh, uh, sometimes will tend to draw to one and, you know, and my assistants have both had the same amount of experience, but, you know, one might like one more than another.

Ioannidou: [00:29:43] Yeah.

Blue: [00:29:44] You know, it is what it is with that. Yeah. Just like anything else. I mean, not all patients are matched with you.

Wright: [00:29:50] Energy.

Blue: [00:29:51] I mean, and that's one of the most important things. You know, if they don't, I'm, I tend to be really energetic. I'm a little bit more hyper and you know, if they really want somebody that's very calm, I'm not their periodontist.

Um, I can be quieter, but you know, I like to talk in my surgeries and some people don't want anybody talking. So you know, here we are, uh, you know, if I don't talk, I'm probably asleep.

Wright: [00:30:12] I love that so much.

So we can't have you going to sleep on the surgeries now. Got to get the surgery done.

Announcer: [00:30:21] On the next dental Sound Bites.

Wright: [00:30:25] A social media crash course, learn how dental influencers get it done and how you can get started building your personal and professional brands on social media.

Wright: Well, Dr. Blue, as we close, is there anything else that you want to add that we didn't cover in the episode today?

Blue: [00:30:48] I just want to, you know, we've been talking about the patients that are, you know, aggressive and get upset and so forth, but most of the patients are so wonderful. I mean, we are in such an amazing, and we're, we're so, you know, they're usually very appreciative.

Um, so, you know, just work on communication skills with your team and, you know, hopefully we avoid, uh, having any issues with safety and so forth with that. I think that's just very important.

Ioannidou: [00:31:10] No, I like that. This is a very positive note. And it's true. Uh, you know, most, most of the people that we see, the majority of the people that we see with, they just want good oral health, right?

So they are there, they will be fine that we have to listen deeply and everything will be fine. Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Blue. And thank you for sharing your stories and the great advices and the experience with the survey. I loved it. The data, please tell our listeners how they can find out more about you and your work and where they can find you online.

Blue: [00:31:44] Well, thank you at first for having me. This is like I said, this is an important topic and, um, you know, it's a good one that we're tackling with that. So I'm at blueperio.com. We have a website, not a huge presence though. I'm, you know, I'm more, uh, one on one, but I'm always happy to have, you know, anybody that wants to reach out to me, uh, just email me.

I'm happy to talk more about all of this. Thank you.

Wright: [00:32:07] Yeah. Thank you so much for being here.

Ioannidou: [00:32:09] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Wright: [00:32:10] For our listeners. If you think your team or a colleague needs to hear this episode, please share it with them. It takes less than 30 seconds to share it in a text and it will keep them informed on how to maintain workplace safety in the dental office.

Ioannidou: [00:32:25] And you can also rate it, write a review and follow us on social media. And don't forget, you can now watch us on the ADA's YouTube channel. Yeah, baby.

Wright: [00:32:36] And this episode is sponsored by Fidelity Investments. Do your patients know a health savings account can help them save on qualified dental expenses?

Fidelity has the resources to help you help your patients learn all about an HSA. Just visit fidelity.com/HSAcanhelp.

Announcer: [00:32:57] Thank you for joining us. Dental Sound Bites is an American Dental Association podcast. You can also find this show, resources and more on the ADA Member App and online at ada.org/podcast.