A Person-Centred Approach to Holistic Assessment

Abstract

Holistic assessment is an important aspect of providing high quality care focused on meeting a patient's individual needs. A holistic assessment should take into consideration the overall health of the patient, including their physical, psychological, social and spiritual wellbeing. This paper aims to clarify the meaning of 'holistic’ in relation to dentistry and describes how this relates to treating the person as a whole, rather than be aligned to any particular treatment philosophy. The importance of a person-centred approach in undertaking a holistic assessment is highlighted. A brief overview of the relational aspects of person-centred care (PCC) is provided and it is suggested that four key dimensions of PCC should be considered as important factors in holistic assessment: connection, caring attitude, communication and control.

Developing Person-Centred Dental Care: The Perspectives of People Living in Poverty

“…Our findings also highlight that people may associate quality care to clinicians’ traits, especially empathy, which is a concept that is central to person-centred health and dental care [ 16 , 24 ]. Mills et al and Karydis et al also reported that patients greatly value a dentist’s empathetic approach [ 25 ]; however, they did not always directly associate it with quality service [ 3 , 26 ].…”

“…Thus, conversations should not be limited to biomedical information but also include casual discussions that support trust and better rapport with patients. Mills et al highlighted the relationship between rapport and trust by finding that some patients used “engagement, rapport and shared values or beliefs” as a way of choosing a dentist [ 3 , 24 , 25 ]. Raja et al also underlined the importance of empathy and rapport and their role in the patient-dentist relationship [ 18 ].…”

Current Evidence On The Use Of Curcumin In Modern Periodontology- A Narrative Review

“…Integral and functional medicines are two modalities that have expanded significantly, with similar trends observed for holistic, biological, and functional dentistry. The main difference between these emerging trends and traditional medicine and dentistry is that healthcare professionals treat the patient as a whole, as opposed to treating the disease and its symptoms [6,7].…”

Dentists deployed: an insider’s perspective of life on the NHS front line

“…Dentists are widely encouraged to adopt an holistic approach to oral healthcare, considering the whole person and putting the mouth ‘back in the body’. 7 Advances in modern medicine have led to increased life expectancy of the population, resulting in enhanced medical complexity and associated polypharmacy, both of which can have a direct impact on the oral cavity. 8 For this reason, continued professional development, including aspects of general medicine, is encouraged within the dental profession to safeguard a well-rounded, patient-centric approach to clinical care.…”