Physical Disorders
Sensory Limitations: hearing impairment
The
patient with a hearing impairment may exhibit fear or hostitlity if they
feel they are not going to understand directions and may pretend to hear
to aviod embarrassment.
Facilitate
communication by reducing extraneous noise as much as possible, i.e.; high-volume
evacuator, saliva ejector, radio or piped-in music. Remove your mask when
speaking to expose your lips. Use mirrors, models, drawings and written
information to augment communication. A sign language interpreter can be
very valuable.
Hearing devices can be adversely affected by the high pitched tone of the
handpiece or ultrasonic scaler which may make the device useless and cause
the patient to be less cooperative. All discussions must be concluded and
patient's hearing device turned off before treatment is begun.
Conduction of vibrations from burs via teeth and bone can be very disturbing
to the hearing impaired; the dental staff should be sensitive and understanding.
