The role of the personal profile of an elderly person in making effective communication between a dentist and a patient. Systematic review

Abstract

Relevance. The success of medical treatment in the elderly often depends on the doctor’s ability to find an individual approach to a patient, including their personality characteristics, comorbidities and compliance level.Materials and methods. A systematic search of the literature was carried out of studies published between 2000 to 2020 in the online databases: PubMed, Google Search, and eLibrary. The articles were reviewed if the criteria for inclusion and exclusion were met.Results. The primary electronic search found 4,314 studies. Upon removing the duplicates and checking the publications for the title and abstract availability, 1,013 studies were selected, whereas the remaining 3,301 publications were excluded as not meeting the above requirements. Subsequently, in exploring the titles and abstracts, full-text of 509 studies was assessed. Of these, 455 publications were excluded for the lack of doctor-patient interaction evaluation. The systematic review included 54 studies for assessment and numerical comparison in this study.Conclusion. The success of dental treatment in the elderly depends on the patient’s personality profile, their preparedness to follow doctor’s recommendations, and dentist treatment skills and psychological competencies in approaching patients of this age group.