The visualization tool providing teamwork between patients and dentists

Tool: Visualization

Challenge:

My practice as a dentistry student has brought me a privileged spot to understand

pacients needs and worries. Over time, during practical hours of the course we enter into  direct contact with pacients who don´t know exactly what is happening with their dentition,  but want it to get fixed.

In the market there are a lot of available services with a variety of prices and quality of

attendance that can make the decision of choosing one harder for the client. When the  intention is to captivate the client, the profissional has to aply all its knowledge and techniques  in order to have the patients interest and trust in its work. If a connection is not well  established, it is easy to loose a potential costumer to a competition that is not as qualified.

There is a set of the dentistry practicioners that focus in providing esthetic services for

the comunity it is established in. This is one area that is really sensitive and unique for all social  beings, therefore a bad outcome can cause a lot of trouble for both sides of the trade. Dentists  need to have a trust worthy way to show the custumer what he knows, how it is envisioned to  be and that it is okay to rely in the work. Furthermore a detailed document of the case is  important to provide material for any legal defense that can appear for any reason.

Selection:

During the course, a lot of the theoretical content seemed great for daily use, but one

in particular got my attention. The Visulization tool seems to be a great mechanism to hook all  spectators into the offered idea, by giving them a little sensorial experience of what was the  encountered problem.

The visualization tool is included into the stage of "what wows", one of the process in  design thinking. Presenting visual information to those who work with you can make groups of  people sincronize about subjective ideas and make this one's more concrete.

Application:

During working hours, the dentist's job can be very demanding of social interactions.

While planning the treatments it is important to count with the cooperation an good will of all  patients for it's success. This process makes possible the formation of a group and joint work  with the clients.

To start this partnership the two sides have to be on board. The development and

application of this method was by taking all the information that are relevant to the case and  presenting it in schematic ways. In dentistry there are programs that can show the dental arc  in 3D images, radiology documentations and clinical photos of before and after. All of each was  used to present the complications and propositions of treatments to clients.

Explaining all the materials collected and tracing with the patient a plan of treatment

makes the process very satisfactory, because while receiving the information the patient can  solve it's doubts and express it's expectations.

Insight:

Presenting the price and justifying why it is indispensabe used to be a very difficult just

through conversation.  Implementing the Visulization tool made possible to creat a feeling of  mutuality between the care giver and the receiver.

So by the end of the experiment I was very glad to have learned this method of design

thinking, it is going to be a very useful tool. The main reason that made it so great was that it  was possible to individualise each person, by its expectative and needs, letting a  approximation begin.

Approach:

Other tools presented in the course can be implemented into this mechanism.  Storytelling tool would help with the capacity of envolving even more the patient into the  explanations.

Storytelling is the capacity to trace the events and reason it into an plan that attends

people's unattended needs. While visual shortcuts helps a lot with the communication, the  actual verbalization brings confidence to the created relationship.

Therefore, in a new opportunity i will try to involve the storytelling and visualization as ways to  pitch suggest treatment plans.

