Empathy in Dentistry: How Attitudes and Interaction With Older Adults Make a Difference

Abstract

The development of empathy and positive attitudes are essential elements of professional education. This study explored the nature of empathy and its association with attitudes about, and exposure to older patients in a sample of dental students. Students completed an adapted version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE), the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) and answered questions about their exposure to older people. Factor analysis was used to identify four factors: (1) Empathy is Valuable, (2) Empathy is Demonstrated, (3) Empathy is not Influential, and (4) Empathy is Difficult to Accomplish. Higher empathy scores were related to the ASD subscale attitude of acceptability of aging and to greater exposure to older adults outside of clinical practice. There were no demographic predictors of higher empathy scores.

Development and preliminary validation of an ageism scale for dental students

“…Ageism scale for dental students of only increasing their geriatric-related knowledge, [28][29][30] as intrinsic biases toward oral health-related behavior in elderly people have been recorded, including whether older people can maintain good oral hygiene, whether teeth are a priority for them, or if they can keep dental appointments. 30 To date, there is not any ageism scale specific for dentists, as the majority of the existing tools have been created to be used by physicians.…”

“…There is evidence that ageism is pervasive among dental students as well . Therefore, recent studies have suggested that geriatric dentistry courses should emphasize developing positive attitudes and empathy toward the elderly, instead of only increasing their geriatric‐related knowledge, as intrinsic biases toward oral health‐related behavior in elderly people have been recorded, including whether older people can maintain good oral hygiene, whether teeth are a priority for them, or if they can keep dental appointments …”

Dental Students’ Perceptions of Dentist-Patient Interactions: An Exploration of Empathy in Dental Students

“…A study by Konrath et al showed that undergraduate college students have less empathy than the past generations (6). Although widely studied among medical students and those of other health disciplines, to date, empathy has received limited attention within the domain of dental education (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). Most of the limited published dental research report moderate overall empathy scores and document that empathy may decrease throughout students' dental education tenure; however, varying study designs make accurate comparisons difficult (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13).…”

Translation and preliminary validation of an ageism scale for dental students in Brazil (ASDS‐Braz)

“…11 Understanding healthcare providers' attitudes towards their patients are extremely important for developing educational interventions resulting in appropriate and equitable healthcare provision. [12][13][14] This encompasses training healthcare providers to have an empathetic approach to all their patients, including the growing cohort of older adults. 14 Consequently, providers should be able to recognise their own ageist attitudes, if present, find ways to address them and reduce/eliminate their negative impacts.…”

“…[12][13][14] This encompasses training healthcare providers to have an empathetic approach to all their patients, including the growing cohort of older adults. 14 Consequently, providers should be able to recognise their own ageist attitudes, if present, find ways to address them and reduce/eliminate their negative impacts. 12,15 In order to help recognise ageist thoughts and attitudes, many instruments have been developed to assess ageism among the public in general, [16][17][18] and also among healthcare professionals, [19][20][21][22][23] with the intent of guiding educational interventions to address ageism associated bias.…”