RECENT reports suggest that the scope for dental health education in the dentist-patient consultation ought to be enhanced. It is pertinant to question how far, or whether or not, dentists are equipped, able and prepared to deliver education in the surgery. Inter views with 28 dentists offer an insight into the prob lems that such a preventive approach might encounter. Difficulties which dentists perceive are found to relate to their communication with patients, and the receptiveness of the patients to professional advice.
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