Blended patient education

In this era of ‘joined up thinking’, ‘joined up government’ and ‘multidisciplinary training’ the concept of ‘blended learning’ is not truly cutting edge stuff, but should perhaps be given consideration when delivering patient education. Blended learning is described as ‘a learning solution that incorporates a mix of on-line and face to face elements’, where busy individuals can choose their time and place to learn and use the more structured face-to-face elements for the more hands on practical learning. Blended Patient Education (BPE) could be described as a behavioural change solution that incorporates a mix of resources, personnel and environments to encourage and establish health benefitting behaviours.

With caries and periodontal disease costing the National Health Service in excess of £2bn per year and prevention making a comeback we might do well to consider ‘blending’ our oral health advice. We know the more often oral health messages are given to the patient using different types of media, the more likely a positive response. But, how often do we utilise the spectrum of health promoting media options in our oral health education messages?  How many of us rely upon well rehearsed and to some extent, successful experiences to inform the next generation of our patients? Is this enough or are there other options that might improve the clinical outcome for some?