Narrative Dentistry as a Technique to Connect Dental Students with Lives Diminished Through Oral Disease

Background This qualitative study investigates the practices of oral health therapy and dental students who took part in an elective narrative dentistry course. The use of narratives as a teaching method is underpinned in this work by the writing of Arthur Frank, where he promotes storytelling to counteract the diminishing effects of disease and ill-health. Methods Students enrolled in professional dental courses were invited to take part in a voluntary short learning program based on the concept of narrative dentistry involving didactic instruction, class discussion and a writing task. In total, 25 students enrolled in the course. Data analysis involved triangulation of field data from the online module and on-line zoom classes, focus group discussion and students’ narratives. The analysis was guided by principles outlined by Arthur Frank on diminished lives. Results The themes arising from analysis were : 1) Narrative dentistry as a teaching tool highlighting the absence of seeing human factors in students’ routine practice 2) Narrative dentistry as a teaching tool for students to see loss and grief connected with dental disease; and 3) Narrative dentistry as a teaching tool which enables students to express a hope for care. Conclusions The narratives created by the participants and engagement with the learning activities suggest that narrative dentistry courses can provide students with a way to make sense of patient experiences in dental care, help to facilitate reflection on empathy and connect students with understanding of what it might mean to provide person-centred dentistry.