Professor Raquel Passos: “Patients shouldn’t have a chance to make excuses.”

Struggling to clean certain areas should not be enough to discourage patients from a proper oral care routine.

Dedicated to helping patients take responsibility for the process of oral hygiene, prof. Raquel Passos from Brazil actively teaches at university, conveys various online courses on adhesive systems, and also leads her own clinic. Find out what the biggest challenges are in the life of this restorative dentist and prosthodontist, and what Professor Passos likes most about her job, in this short interview. 

What routines do you find most critical for maintaining proper oral health?

The most critical area for maintaining proper oral health is the interdental area. However, the majority of the available devices that patients are most familiar with do not comply with this task – they don’t clean these areas efficiently.

The tricky part is that the patient thinks he or she is cleaning this area, but unfortunately sufficient cleaning is not actually happening. By and large, it isn’t such a tough nut to crack, but it’s crucial to show patients which devices can actually get the job done, and how important they are. 

What does the word prevention mean to you?

Prevention means really taking care of your patients’ oral health. It is more important than any other procedure we can perform in order to establish and maintain oral homeostasis.

What is your “golden rule” or advice that you tell your patients often?

It is better to take the time once a day to do a proper oral hygiene routine, rather than do it poorly many times a day. Multiple quickly-done attempts of oral hygiene end up being less effective than one proper activity. To have better results, you must take your time at least once a day, and pay good attention to what you do.

What’s the biggest challenge of your job?

Making the patient understand the importance of his or her home oral-care routine, and the impact it can have on their general health. That is for sure the biggest challenge of my job.

What’s the thing that you like about your job the most?

When the patient sees results of his or her own effort, by having a better taste in the mouth or experiencing remission of gingival bleeding, the patient dedicates him or herself to the prevention and maintenance of oral hygiene. In such situations, the patient becomes self-motivated to maintain oral health and feels responsible for this process.

What’s the most important thing in terms of oral care routine from your point of view?

The most important thing is to not make excuses for not doing it well. If patients are having a hard time cleaning any area, they should let their dentist know which area it is, and ask for help. We as dentists should teach them a technique for getting better results with the tools they already have.

What’s the biggest oral health myth that you fight against?

A huge oral-health myth is that mouthwashes are a substitute for brushing and cleaning the interdental area.

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