Health: Is my Korean dentist afraid of me?
“Trips to the dentist – I like to postpone that kind of thing.” – Johnny Depp
Don’t we all? Unfortunately, we aren’t all pain-tolerant bad boys like Depp’s characters Cry-Baby, Tonto, and Sands. Brushing off a toothache is like trying to ignore a charging rhinoceros: damn near impossible and not very smart. What’s more, even the strongest resolve may snap at the thought of having to sit in the chair of terror in a foreign country.
But is this fear mutual? How can foreigners in particular communicate with their Korean dentists? Is there anything you can do to make sure things go accordingly?
These are questions that Kim Joung Il, DDS, of Yonsei Woori Dental Clinic in Meh Gak Dong helps shed light upon.
Talk baby to me
Dr. Kim says he doesn’t have any preconceptions or fears of foreign patients, nor has he heard of these kinds of biases or fears from any dentists he knows. Admittedly, though, there is a little worry, he confesses. Dentists worry whether they will be able to communicate medical terms of complex processes, but that concern exists even when working with Korean patients. Communicating to foreigners is the same challenge as explaining medical terminology or complex procedures to very young or elderly patients.
“When I first meet a patient, I don’t ask ‘Do you feel pain in the second tooth on the right side?’ and take that as word. I speak with him or her simply. When I check the painful spot with my finger and they say ‘Ah,’ I know they feel pain or soreness.”
A good dentist applies professional knowledge and cues into universal signals to locate and diagnose problems. Dr. Kim pays close attention to body language and facial expressions in judging a patient’s level of pain and can then ask them to measure it using their hands and words like “high”, “middle”, or “low.”
Overcoming the language barrier
The biggest barrier for Korean dentists when working with foreign patients is lack of confidence in their speaking abilities, rather than the language itself. “Should dentists rapidly study up on foreign language skills? I don’t think so,” says Dr. Kim. “We can deliver brief explanations using relevant terms for treatment.” Korean dentists often feel shy, awkward or apologetic in wondering whether the explanation was complete enough for the patient, but this does not affect the confidence they have in being able to treat the ailment.
Go with what you know
Acquaintances go a long way in Korea, and the number one thing Dr. Kim recommends all local and foreign patients bring with them to a new office is trust. Using a personal connection, patient referral or recommendation, you must find a clinic and a doctor you can trust.
“Once you decide to receive treatment from a clinic and its doctor, you must have confidence in him 100 percent. If you have perfect trust in him, does any language make a difference?” Dr. Kim asks.
A fish with chopsticks
Foreigners need not worry that they will be treated differently, or that dentists will be hard on them, Dr. Kim assures us. “We may both feel a bit like a fish out of water, but we Korean dentists are trying to understand you, make you comfortable and kindly proceed to treat you.”
As in all other medical fields in Korea, nearly all dental facilities are equipped with sophisticated medical technology, and only the most qualified students with extensive clinical experience become practitioners. The delicacy of physicians’ hands is noted*. Dr. Kim attributes it to “chopstick culture.”
*This was first mentioned in January 2014’s health article “Sight Seeing,” where a corrective eye surgeon describes Korean physician manual dexterity as ‘having a light touch,’ stemming from the ancient tradition of handcraft.”
Kim Joung Il, DDS, Yonsei Woori Dental Clinic, 연세우리치과 , 광주광역시 북구 매곡동 32-2 (3rd Floor), 062-573-2822