| A
New and Essential Dental CE Course
on the Art of Thinking Independently Together
“Understanding Cultural Diversity in Dentistry”
Every practicing dental health care professional adds an important
element to providing culturally competent care. An individual’s
cultural beliefs influence a patient’s health, illness and treatment
decisions, either consciously or unconsciously. It is therefore
important that the dental care provider recognize, respect and
integrate patients’ cultural beliefs and practices into treatment
of these patients. Dental practitioners who develop a basic understanding
of their patient’s values, beliefs and customs are better able
to provide culturally acceptable care.
There are three terms defining culturally competent care. Understanding
these terms will assist you in developing competency in your relationship
with your patients. Cultural awareness is the understanding and
appreciation of differences between oneself and people of different
countries or cultures, particularly their attitudes, values and
external signs of diversity such as physical characteristics,
clothing, music and art. Cultural sensitivity is the recognition
that there are differences between cultures and groups including
communication styles and the way they relate to one another. It
means that dental providers need to examine their personal attitudes
and not say anything offensive to someone from a cultural or ethnic
background that is different from their own. This is an ongoing
process. Cultural competence is when a provider views all patients
as unique individuals and realizes that their experiences, beliefs,
values, and language affect their perceptions of clinical service
delivery, acceptance of a diagnosis and compliance. It is beneficial
for dental health care providers to be open to cultural encounters
and experiences in their lives in order to be comfortable treating
the diverse cultural and ethnic groups in our country. Prejudices
and bias can be minimized with increased knowledge and understanding.
Our dental
continuing education online site, www.dentassist.com, has
written this fundamental course that is designed to give you an
overview and foundation to develop cultural competence in the
delivery of dental health care. It is vital for dental professionals
to think about their behavior and their communication style with
regard to their own ideology, beliefs and life experiences. Your
life experience plays an important role when interacting with
people who are different from you.
The “Understanding Cultural Diversity in Dentistry” course will
provide you with basic knowledge and understanding about the different
cultures in order to develop closeness or empathy. It is important
to recognize how our future, our production our livelihood is
dependent upon the cooperation, contributions, kindness and trust
of our patients. It is therefore our responsibility to have compassion
and understanding for every one of them.
Check out the simplicity of dental CE online courses at www.dentassist.com.
Email any inquiries to ce@dentassist.com
Lisa Saiia, Director of dentassist.com
916-443-1313
www.dentassist.com
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