What is Narrative Dentistry?
This is a beautiful collage of framed photos in the front of the office. It represents the years of core memories & the special narrative of our practice & the people that shaped our story.
I’m often asked what made me choose the name “Narrative Dentistry”. I honestly love this question because it’s a reminder of what my goals & aspirations are for this practice, my career, and overall how I want to treat patients.
I’ve been practicing for over 10 years in dentistry in a wide spectrum of different settings. I’ve worked at small non-profit community clinics to large corporate dental offices. Each experience taught me different lessons that helped develop my practice philosophy and who I am as a person.
At the core of each experience, I learned that treating patients go far beyond what text books and years of education can teach. Treating patients means listening to their stories, their narrative. Their stories are sometimes convoluted, ups, downs, breaks, new paths, cycles, beginnings, or nearing the end. Their stories impact how they view the world, how they live their lives, and how they treat others.
While it’s important to be objective when gathering information & findings to develop a diagnosis & plan, it’s not the only piece of the puzzle. We are not robots. We are human beings, and human beings are complex.
Narrative Dentistry is my practice philosophy. It’s a patient-centered approach that involves a deeper understanding of a person’s story that goes beyond an algorithm of problem & solution. The goal of my practice is to balance the clinical, personal, & humanistic facets of dentistry to improve the quality of treatment & life.
Narrative Dentistry strives for ideal, but works with the limitations of each patient’s story. As much as I want to do, make, & give perfection, Narrative Dentistry is an understanding that ideal is subjective and varies from person to person. It’s a philosophy that focuses on human uniqueness and the development of personalized treatment plans.
I believe the key components to practicing Narrative Dentistry is empathy, honest & open communication, & active listening. These are skills that I am trying to improve professionally & personally every day.
Narrative Dentistry is my way of practicing & treatment patients that helps me go to bed at night knowing that I did the best I could for others.
