Communication theory in dental practice – Part two

The Government White Paper, ‘Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier’, is aimed at encouraging health professionals to promote healthy lifestyle choices to reduce health inequalities ¹. This is something that all dental professionals are, or should be, working towards with their patients, so it is quite likely that you are already having ‘health behaviour’ conversations with your patients and realising just how difficult it can be. Both parts one and part two of this short series consider the use of communication theories to inform and influence different patient health behaviours and dental attendance, and demonstrate that skilful communication could contribute to improved oral health (OH) and, thereby, total health².