ABSTRACT
As a senior lecturer in the Department of Periodontology and Oral Implantology, I would like to share an issue of teachers role in developing communication skills among dental students, which is based on article published in IJOCR 2017;5(2) titled, “teachers’ perspective on inclusion of communication skills in dental education curriculum.” I really appreciate the authors’ efforts of doing analytical research over this subject. It is very much important to maintain a good rapport with the patient to make the treatment a success. Therefore, by learning communication skills, students can better educate their patients regarding their present and future treatment plan. According to PubMed databases, 65% of successful dentist–patient instructions transmitted through non-verbal methods and only 35% verbal instructions followed by patients.[1] Newer communication skills such as small group discussions, objective structure clinical examination, and real patient simulation should be incorporated in the dental curriculum. Moreover, to judge, how much successful the learning process in students, one common universal student evaluation questionnaire scale should be developed, which would be approved by a worldwide panel of researchers in this particular field of communication skills. Major limitations for inclusion of teaching communication skills in dental curriculum are lack of time in dental curriculum, faculty time, and funding for specialized equipment to educate patients.[2] You are kindly requested to share your views to overcome these limitations.