Delivering bad news to dental patients.

Most dentists are accustomed to reporting to a patient that he or she has two new carious lesions, and patients accept such news relatively easily. A diagnosis of periodontal disease requiring multiple extractions and denture construction is less readily assimilated; accordingly, providers usually take more time and care in explaining this situation. A diagnosis of carcinoma, which a dentist seldom is required to deliver, cannot be imparted in the same manner in which one would reveal a diagnosis of caries or of periodontal disease. A compassionate, measured, sensitive, and private discussion between a dentist and a patient with a serious diagnosis serves as the first step of a journey that is likely to result in substantive changes in that patient's life.