For dental health professionals, clinical skills are only part of the equation when it comes to achieving positive outcomes for patients. One of the most powerful tools in your toolkit is communication—especially when it comes to motivating children and their parents to take charge of their oral health at home. Effective communication is crucial to help build trust, a positive experience, and to ensure patients understand their treatment.1
Maintaining good oral hygiene isn’t just about what happens in the dental chair—it’s about building consistent habits and a positive attitude toward dental care. Communicating in the right way can turn a reluctant kid into an engaged patient and a stressed-out parent into a partner in their child’s oral health journey.
Communication can take many forms, whether verbal or non-verbal, but in this article, we’ll discuss ways in which conversational communication with pediatric patients and their families can motivate and maintain behavior change for better preventative care.
The Basics of Good Communication
Effective communication is a two-way process and adopting the principles of the 5 C’s can help develop healthy relationships and mutual understanding between pediatric patients, their parents and the dental professional.2
- Clarity: Simple, jargon-free language ensures your message is easy to understand. Nonverbal cues such as body language and tone of voice can enhance clarity
- Conciseness: Be brief, to the point and avoid unnecessary details. In a world of information overload, fewer words often lead to greater impact
- Correctness: Ensure your message is accurate, error-free, and logical to follow
- Completeness: Think ahead to consider what your patient will need to know. Provide all necessary information, ask for questions and check their understanding
- Courtesy: Communicate with respect, empathy, and cultural awareness. Listen actively and respond thoughtfully to build positive connections
Motivating Behavior Change
Changing and maintaining oral hygiene behaviors is a continuous process between the dental team and the pediatric patient and their parent or carer. It involves communication and education before, during and after the delivery of care in practice.1 The aims include establishing trust, alleviating a child’s dental fear, promoting awareness of the need for good oral hygiene routines as well as stopping unwanted or unsafe behaviors. Communicating with kids and their carers poses special challenges for the dental team.
Here are some ideas that can help motivate change.
Empathy and Understanding:
Talk with kids, not at them. Using simple words and a friendly tone can help you gently guide children rather than lecturing them.1 Parents are often doing their best despite busy routines, so rather than giving a list of dos and don’ts, help them feel capable and supported.3
Be Collaborative:
A collaborative approach helps both the patient and parent to have a positive dental experience. Helping families see dental health as a shared goal and using inclusive language like “We’re all working together to keep your teeth strong and healthy” can encourage a sense of teamwork.3
Take Time:
Taking time to explain procedures, techniques or the reasons for doing a behavior will help get your message across and parents on board. In fact, how members of the dental team interact with young patients is closely correlated to levels of parent satisfaction.1
Tell-show-do:
Behavioral guidance techniques such as tell-show-do can help children feel more comfortable during dental visits. This hands-on, step-by-step approach reinforces learning and helps develop positive routines. It also engages caregivers, making it easier for them to support good oral hygiene habits at home.1
- Tell: Explain the procedure or task in simple, age-appropriate language
- Show: Demonstrate each stage using models, tools or visual aids
- Do: Guide the child through doing the action themselves, offering advice and encouragement
Positive Reinforcement:
Kids respond well to encouragement, so acknowledge and celebrate any positive changes or progress made by patients—even if it's not perfect. Verbal praise, maybe combined with a sticker or small gift at the end of an appointment, can go a long way.1
Motivational Interviewing (MI):
MI is a collaborative, patient-focused way to help patients work through uncertainty about behavior change.3,4 In pediatric oral care, it allows dental professionals to connect with kids and their caregivers in a supportive way, encouraging healthy habits like regular brushing and reducing sugar. Using open-ended questions, active listening and discussing achievable goals, MI helps build trust, identify barriers, and boost motivation—leading to better long-term oral health for kids.3,4
The Dental Home:
The Dental Home is an ongoing, trusted relationship between the dental team, a child and their family. It provides comprehensive, accessible, and family-centered oral health care. The Dental Home is essentially an ongoing ‘conversation’ that allows for open communication covering all aspects of oral health that is individualized to the needs of the patient. It also helps families to support habits for healthy teeth and gums from childhood through to adulthood.5
Keeping the conversation going
A single discussion is rarely enough, so use all the resources at your disposal to add continuity and support between dental visits. You can send follow-up emails, messaging apps or reminder cards to reinforce your message, provide tips, advice and motivational encouragement.
Technology is invaluable in maintaining good oral care habits. For example, Willo utilizes smart technology to enhance compliance. Not only is Willo clinically proven to remove plaque.6 Its interactive app has a brushing history tracker for parents to monitor their kid’s brushing habits. This data can also be shared with the dental team for more informed discussions about oral health. The app has reminders and timers to establish consistent routines and a reward system that keeps children engaged and motivated to brush.
Make Every Word Count
Effective communication is about connection, not correction. When dental professionals take the time to listen, encourage, and empower, you inspire families to become proactive about oral health. Through small shifts in language, tone, and approach, you can help them develop good habits for lifelong dental wellness—one conversation at a time!
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References:
1. American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Behavior guidance for the pediatric dental patient. The Reference Manual of Pediatric Dentistry. Chicago, Ill.: American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry; 2024:358-78.
2. Ho J, et al. Strategies for Effective Dentist-Patient Communication: A Literature Review. Pat Pref and Adher. 2024;18:1385–1394.
3. American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Pediatric Research and Policy Center. Patient centered care. August 2013.
4. Gillam D and Yusef Y. Brief Motivational Interviewing in Dental Practice. Dent. J. 2019;7:51; doi:10.3390/dj7020051.
5. American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Policy on the dental home. The Reference Manual of Pediatric Dentistry. Chicago, Ill.: American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry; 2024:38-40.
6. Willo. Data on File.
