ON THE DAY

The event began with Mrs Rita Ferris-Taylor, a registered tutor of Makaton (a highly-used language aid involving signs), who works as a residential worker and a speech and language therapist (SALT) with people with learning disabilities. She delivered a two-hour session, educating the audience on the origins of Makaton, its uses and why it is so beneficial for communication. We found the session extremely engaging and aided in the retention of the foundational and dentistry-related Makaton signs we learnt. One of the first activities we did in pairs was to communicate a sentence to the person sitting next to us without speaking After attempting this, we discussed a few emotions we felt when undergoing this exercise – frustration, helplessness, and confusion were some of the few negative emotions associated with trying to communicate with just gestures and facial expressions

Mrs Ferris-Taylor explained to us about how the difficulty we faced during that small one-minute task is a daily reality for a huge number of people. She also described how some individuals may be unable to communicate their pain and become angry or frustrated: perhaps hitting their cheek or stomping if they have an excruciating toothache, leading to them being classified as behaviourally challenging. These messages were a huge eyeopener to us, and perfectly conveyed why it is so important for us to make sure we can effectively communicate with people with additional needs. Our attendees described the session as extremely engaging and useful, and asked Mrs Ferris-Taylor several additional questions at the end. She was also kind enough to send us some Makaton packs for attendees to look at and maintain the knowledge of what they had learned on the day.

Session 2

Following Mrs Ferris-Taylor’s Makaton awareness session, Dr Natalie Bradley then delivered a presentation about her experience working as a specialist in special care and sedation dentistry Dr Bradley is well-accompl f the Young Dentist Committee as well as w CN (Managed

One extremely interesting case she talked about was a patient who had severe agoraphobia and couldn’t leave the house for treatment. After many failed attempts at trying to acclimatise the patient to the outdoors and four years of treatment planning and gaining consent, Dr Bradley, a team of anaesthetists and nurses were able to sedate this patient in his home and take him to hospital to be cared for Whilst this is a rare case, it really highlighted how a simple dental visit for some can be terrifying for others, and how crucial it is to ensure that these individuals receive the same standard of care as those without additional needs During the patient’s stay at the hospital, he thankfully received a lot of medical attention and personal care that he had not been able to access for the last 12 years due to his severe agoraphobia

Many of Dr Bradley’s patients are similar with regards to having multiple comorbidities, requiring careful treatment planning, involvement of the wider dental team as well as other medical professionals, or involvement from social services. She highlighted the important role of carers, who are an asset to treatment planning as they know the patient intimately and can give helpful suggestions on what the patient may be experiencing or treatment that the patient would prefer. She also gave us a list of tips for seeing these patients and informed us about societies for vulnerable patients such as Pathway and The Faculty for Homeless and Inclusion Health, and others.

Session 3

Last to present was Dr Kunal Choudhary, a m and consultant psychiatrist from the Active C background ranges from general medicine (in and toxicology), A&E and psychiatry training expert witness in crown prosecution and def a specialist in substance misuse and a consul care rehab

Dr Choudhary’s presentation centred around illnesses. He spoke about how to approach p present in ways ranging from withdrawn and are experiencing depression for example, to physically intimidating. Not only did he emphasise ways in which we can step back and maintain professional boundaries, but he also gave us additional tips such as making use of carers who can really help with management as they will know the patient best. He recounted an experience where, mid-conversation with a prisoner, he was instructed to immediately leave the room by the guards for the sake of his safety. They had noticed the prisoner scratching his head and instantly recognised this behavioural cue as an indication that the prisoner was on the brink of aggression and was getting frustrated. This would most likely have gone unnoticed by most individuals, but due to close observation and interaction with the prisoner, the guards became familiarised with the prisoner’s verbal and non-verbal cues and thus, his mental state.

This can be applied to patients about whom we may not know much – carers can aid us immensely. He also stressed the importance of not looking at these patients solely through a scientific lens but holistically, factoring in the bio-psycho-social model. What coping mechanisms may they have? Are they suffering due to the cost-of-living crisis or domestic abuse? These are just a fraction of the very relevant issues he discussed He also debunked common myths regarding how to manage patients who may have mental illnesses. For example, talking about a stressful situation that a patient has been through will make it worse Although every scenario and patient is different, asking open-ended questions may provide a platform for patients to open up and build trust with the clinician. Dr Choudhary’s messages were extremely insightful, and he even offered to speak for us again in the future!