Dentistry and the media have a fairly uneventful relationship most of the time. The media usually picks on dental earnings as their main line of attack and occasionally may focus on the findings of a national epidemiological survey about decay. From time to time undercover reporters seem to pop up in dental chairs filming consultations or attempting to generate a scandal about dental charges. A few stories about General Dental Council proceedings may even make it to the press if there is something particularly unusual about a case but most of the time dentistry rarely features in the mainstream media.
Dentists, like most in society, are now using other mediums to communicate, some of which are quite public. An increasing number of dental practices have websites, Facebook pages and Twitter followings. In some areas local professional networks also seem to be using these mechanisms of communicating. These methods of communication, if handled properly, could have a beneficial effect on patients and promote oral health.
Media training courses are very useful ways of helping individuals learn how to respond to the media in different forms. Media training can be quite useful in making us think about the way we speak and present ourselves when dealing with the media. Similarly there are now courses to help get the best out of social media. The GDC, just like the General Medical Council, have issued guidelines on using social medial which provide some checks and balances for dental professionals.
Most of our current leaders in dentistry will probably have had media training at some stage and it may at times feel like acting school. It may sometimes go unnoticed but dentistry does seem to have made an impact on media training. A number of courses feature examples of good and bad media interviews. Colleagues of mine have been shown some course content that featured an interview for a documentary relating to dentistry. This interview seemed to progress badly; however it seems to have made an unusual contribution to media training. It seems that other health care professionals and a few dentists are using this as a way of developing themselves and learning how not to communicate.
We have entered an era where the public are more aware and communication has become global. Access to dentistry is more than visiting a dentist, it involves the availability of online information. In some parts of healthcare, access to advice is available through web chat and through video medicine, whilst this may be more difficult within dentistry it probably
already exists through email in certain circumstances.
Over the last decade there have been some huge scandals within healthcare, driven by interpretation of science and then the way the media was used to convey messages to the public, most people are probably aware of the publicity surrounding
the MMR vaccine which still affects society today. In some parts of the UK, social media has been used by anti-fluoridation lobbyists which may have been the closest that dentistry has been to negative media campaigns in recent times.
As our profession develops and as we embrace technology and new ways of interacting with the public it seems there is an even greater reason for dentists to learn more about communication and the use of social media. In my view, communicating with the public is an essential part of our professional responsibility and therefore those of us who interact with the media need to ensure we do so in a way in which reflects our professional values.