Telehealth Best Practices: Dr Sean Boynes of CareQuest Institute for Oral Health On How To Best LOOK AFTER Your Patients When They AREN'T Physically BEFORE YouPosted by Wall Coughlin on May 19th, 2021 Establish and maintain a strong patient-provider relationship. In terms of teledentistry, among the great benefits is that it expands access to people. Because of this, there?s a chance you will end up seeing and meeting many new faces via teledentistry. So, you should set up a strong foundation of trust and build rapport, and continue to maintain one each time you see them. One of many consequences of the pandemic is the dramatic growth of Telehealth and Telemedicine. But how can doctors and providers best care for their patients when they aren't physically before them? What do doctors wish patients knew in order to make sure they are getting the best results even though they are not actually in the office? How can Telehealth approximate and even improve upon the healthcare that traditional doctors? visits can offer? In this interview series, called ?Telehealth Best Practices; How To Best LOOK AFTER Your Patients When They Are Not Physically In Front Of You? we are speaking with successful Doctors, Dentists, Psychotherapists, Counselors, and other medical and wellness professionals who share lessons and stories from their experience about the best practices in Telehealth. As part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sean G. Boynes. Sean G. Boynes, DMD, MS, serves as Vice President, Health Improvement for CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. Sean leads the organization?s health improvement programs, partnering with public and private stakeholders over the health continuum to build up, test, and measure prevention-focused, person-centered strategies. A dentist anesthesiologist and prolific author and speaker, Sean is really a catalyst for systems change ? testing ideas and identifying solutions to create a more equitable, accessible, and integrated health system, specifically for historically marginalized people and communities. He spearheads several initiatives, including national programs that promote the integration and coordination of person-centered care, the development and implementation of value based oral health strategies, and the establishment of meaningful teeth's health measurement to evaluate success. Sean has been identified by a number of national organizations for his work in health policy and clinical care. Recognitions include: National Health Service Corps? 40th Anniversary Celebration 40 Top Clinicians award, Distinguished School Services Award from the SC School Nurses Association, Dentist of Distinction designation by the National Children?s Oral Health Foundation, and the National Network for Oral Health Access President?s Award. Sean earned his doctor of dental medicine degree from the University of Pittsburgh and completed a three-year residency in anesthesiology from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Many thanks so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to ?get to know you? a bit better. Can you reveal a bit about your ?backstory? and the way you got started? I?ve always wanted to become a dentist. I think I was so attracted to the profession because I experienced early childhood dental disease and decay. My high-risk status meant that I was frequently at the dentist office and also had to undergo sedation at a comparatively young age. My childhood experiences with dental treatment weren?t great. That's what drew me to the profession. I needed to become a dentist to help make the oral health care experience better for everybody. Fast forward to today and today I'm a dentist anesthesiologist. While my experiences shaped what I really do, what I'm is more ingrained in family and culture. I am the son of a coal miner and grew up in a small rustbelt town in northern Appalachia, Weirton, WV. The city is home to one of many largest steel mills in the country, once dubbed the ?mill of tomorrow? and featured in multiple movies like Deer Hunter, Reckless, and most recently Super 8 from JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg. (Super 8 is a very good rendering of my childhood ? without the alien of course). Because of the steel boom and the prosperity that was included with it, individuals from worldwide found my town for a chance to get yourself a good wage. This allowed me to grow up in a multi-cultural environment and learn different customs important to different people. It also allowed me the opportunity to comprehend how certain structures in society can affect people in various ways. I saw firsthand peoples? capability to overcome adversity and create change which has inspired me in the work I really do at CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. Can you share probably the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career? Early on in my career I was an teeth's health provider in the rural south. 1 day just as I was prepared to close up the clinic, a big pickup truck with a horse trailer pulls in to the parking lot. Assuming it had been an emergency patient, I went out to see that which was going on. The gentleman explained he was from a few counties over and that I was the nearest dentist he may find. We were in a very rural area in order that made sense to me. But the next words out of his mouth took me for a loop. He continued to describe that he was not the patient. It was the horse! His horse had chipped a tooth also it was causing enough discomfort that the horse was bucking incessantly. I?d never performed equine dentistry before but with the aid of a veterinarian friend on the telephone, we were able to smooth out the chipped tooth and send the horse and his happy owner on their way. Not only was that just about the most interesting stories from my early career but it addittionally might be among the earliest types of interprofessional care and telehealth in oral health! Is it possible to please give us your preferred ?Life Lesson Quote?? Is it possible to share how that was relevant to you in your life? Admittedly I've a rebellious streak, so I am going to bend the rules and give you two quotes. The first is attributed to Socrates and becomes increasingly relevant as I age. ?The trick of change would be to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the brand new.? To me this means some things are not meant for changing and that?s quite fine. Instead of focusing on the things we can?t change, we have to focus on the near future and the new things we can create. teledentistry The second is from the one and only, George Carlin. ?I put a dollar in the change machine, and nothing changed.? The work of transforming health care to boost peoples? lives could be incredibly difficult work that requires a great deal of piloting, testing and redesigning. It really is good to have a love of life about it when it is time to go back to the drawing board. This Carlin quote reminds me of that. None of us have the ability to achieve success without some help on the way. Is there a person who you're grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Is it possible to share a tale about that? There have been so many mentors, colleagues, students, friends, and family who have helped me grow and evolve throughout my career. But I usually go back to the very beginning. My grandma was an excellent influential figure in my own life immediately. She taught me the importance of a purposeful life and introduced me to philosophy. She encouraged me to explore the concepts of right and wrong and bought me books of quotes arranged by topics that shaped my world view in a manner that I did not fully appreciate as a kid. I learned never to accept the status quo without true consideration and interrogation of the facts. Her influence led me to a lifetime career centered on continual improvement and the betterment of individuals?s lives in meaningful ways. Ok wonderful. Let?s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The pandemic has changed so a lot of things about the way we behave. One of them of course, is how doctors treat their patients. Many doctors have started treating their patients remotely. Telehealth can of course be very different than working with a patient that is in front of you. This gives great opportunity since it allows more people usage of medical professionals, but it can also create unique challenges. To begin, can you articulate for our readers some of the main benefits of having an individual in front of you? As health professionals, among our favorite parts of the job is interacting with patients face-to-face. Beyond treating and caring for patients, I?ve always loved getting to know the people I serve to create lasting, trusting relationships. While teledentistry allows for face-to-face interactions virtually with video conferencing, in-person interactions will be an important part of dentistry. In-person interactions allow dental associates to build rapport, understanding and ultimately trust with patients. It gives us the opportunity to connect on a more emotional level. For example, we can better celebrate with anyone who has just gotten their braces off or empathize with an individual who may be nervous in regards to a particular procedure or circumstance. In-person interaction could be especially beneficial when discussing important health issues. As the provider, the personal touch might help ensure our patients understand us clearly and vice versa. We can more easily get rid of any confusion, questions or miscommunication. Another advantage of having patients in front of us is that we are able to immediately provide them with a complete range of services ? from preventative care to emergency care. In the end, dentistry is still a hands-on profession with the majority of treatment requiring direct connection with an individual. On the flip side, can you articulate for our readers some of the main challenges that arise whenever a patient is not in exactly the same space as the doctor? Teledentistry has enabled dental teams to expand access to needed services and treat more patients at lower costs. Integrating more telehealth-enabled care into dentistry may be the future, but today, there's still a need to ensure patients have a dental home and will access look after more comprehensive treatments in a physical setting.Like it? Share it! More by this author |