| Sondra Goldstein, Ph.D.
Program Chair Division 42 First Annual Practice Development Conference March 3-5, 2000 Beverly Hills, California |
Psychologists and Dentists: Mutual Practice Opportunities
How often do you visit your dentist? Every six months, or at least every year? He or she is a health care “friend” with whom you probably have a long-term and hopefully satisfactory relationship. But have you ever considered your dentist as a potential source of referrals for your practice? If you have not viewed your dentist as a referral source, and a collaborative partner in patient treatment, you may be neglecting a valuable potential referral source that is literally under your nose. The theme of the upcoming Division 42 First Annual Practice Development Conference is “Psychologists and Dentists: Mutual Practice Opportunities.” The conference focuses on collaborative clinical treatment and marketing by dentists and psychologists, with an emphasis on mutual practice building benefits. The ten-hour continuing education program will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, March 4 (6 hours) and Sunday, March 5 (4 hours). Both psychologists and dentists will present on collaborative treatment of patients in a variety of areas. Areas include: addictions, eating disorders, temporomandibular disorders, dental phobia, self-esteem issues in tooth loss, dealing with noncompliant and/or angry dental patients, preventing early “baby bottle” decay, and dental related child abuse patterns. Last, but not least will be a presentation regarding the role of the psychologist in providing psychological support and/or coaching for the dentist and allied staff. As the themes of psychologist/dentist collaboration illustrate, there are many instances in dental practice in which psychological intervention is essential in order to provide adequate and comprehensive patient care. In my own practice with adolescent patients under the care of an orthodontist, the issue of noncompliance often emerges when adolescent orthodontic patients refuse to wear retainers or nighttime headgear. Without retainer compliance, all of the valuable orthodontic intervention will be undone. Without patient headgear compliance, the orthodontic treatment cannot proceed. The psychologist’s role in exploring issues of separation, autonomy, opposition, as well as self-esteem may allow the adolescent patient to cooperate more fully with the orthodontist, with mutual practice benefit to the psychologist, dentist, and most importantly the patient’s health. Does the orthodontist who treated your own children, or your current patients who are in orthodontia, know that you, as a psychologist, have psychotherapeutic skills which would be of benefit to his or her practice? Marketing your skills as a psychologist to such a dental specialist will be discussed in depth at the Division 42 First Annual Practice Development Conference. As the “baby boomer” generation ages, another mutual practice issue will gain more prominence - that of tooth loss, and self-esteem. Technological advances in dental implants now make the possibility of dentures far more remote than a generation ago. However, the shame of tooth loss directly associated with the shame of aging often must be addressed first in psychotherapy before patients can cooperatively begin the complex and expensive stages of successful dental implant treatment. General dentists, oral surgeons and prosthodontists are all performing dental implants on “senior” patients, and may welcome the addition of a psychological component to successful implant treatment plans. Another important area of mutual practice benefit is the area of diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders. Bullimics and bullimarexics destroy the enamel of their teeth by purging, creating yellow/orange discoloration of teeth, characteristic of this eating disorder. Dentists are often the first professionals to notice these changes in the coloring of the eating disorder patient’s teeth. By making an appropriate referral to a psychologist who specializes in treating eating disorders, the dentist helps the patient in dealing with a life threatening disorder, as well as prevents additional and permanent damage to dentition. An additional collaborative practice area for dentists and psychologists is the treatment of jaw pain (temporomandibular disorder or TMD). Patients seeking treatment for TMD may be treated in a several ways including surgery, crowns, bite plates, and/or psychotherapy. Many TMD patients benefit significantly from hypnosis, relaxation, biofeedback, and others stress reduction interventions in psychotherapy with psychologists. A problem associated with TMD is bruxism, or “tooth grinding.” Referral to a psychologist for relaxation training can be helpful in alleviating jaw pain and damage to teeth caused by bruxism. The benefit to patients from collaborative treatment with both a dentist and psychologist may be more rapid and long lasting amelioration of jaw pain symptoms. The fearful or phobic dental patient is a challenge to both the psychologist and dentist. Collaborative approaches to reducing dental fear are extremely beneficial to the patient’s emotional and dental health. Drs. Paul Glassman and Bruce Peltier (dentist and psychologist) have developed a team approach to dental phobia which will be presented at the March 4, 2000 conference. The team approach to dental phobia is extremely effective with phobic dental patients and beneficial to both psychological and dental practices. The true appeal of dentist-psychologist collaboration as an additional niche practice for psychologists is that our training as psychotherapists prepares us to step into the role of working collaboratively with dentists. No additional “specialty” training is necessary to provide psychotherapy, relaxation training, and stress management. However, both psychologists and dentists have to mutually educate and market their skills in order to work collaboratively. The Division 42 Practice Development Conference (March 3-5, 2000) will be an effective way to stimulate more mutual practice building between dentists and psychologists. The conference will be widely advertised to dentists in order to encourage their attendance, and allow opportunities for networking. An additional component of the conference will be the availability of a brochure designed for psychologists to provide to dentists, explaining the ways in which the two professions may work collaboratively for the benefit of patients. The brochures may be personalized to contain the psychologist’s address and telephone number. This important marketing tool will be available at the conference, and ways of utilizing the brochure will be discussed in the marketing component of the March 5, 2000 program presented by Laurie Kolt, Ph.D. and Toni Bernay, Ph.D. SAVE the DATES! This conference will add to your skills and marketing strategies to become MANAGED CARE FREE! Sondra Goldstein, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice and a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology, at UCLA. Her address is 16055 Ventura Blvd., #923; Encino, CA 91436. Her E-mail address is sgold@ucla.edu |
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