Interpersonal Communication Skills and the Related Parameters among Dentists in Birjand, Iran

Communication skills are critical in the present era. Due to their professional position, dentists require competent skills for proper rapport with colleagues and patients. This study intended to determine the interpersonal communication skills and the related factors among dentists in Birjand, Iran.

This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was performed in 2020 on 120 general and specialist dentists who were selected through consensus sampling in Birjand. The standard Dental Consultation Communications Checklist (DCCC), with 31 items was used as the data collection tool, which was filled out by 99 participants. The data were analyzed through t-test and analysis of variance using SPSS software.

There were 44 (44.5%) general and specialist dentists with the age range of 30-39 years. The mean score of interpersonal communication skills was 75.114± 834.22 for general dentists and 73.123±226.19 among the specialist dentists. There was no statistically significant relationship between the variables of age, sex, academic rank and work experience with the dentists’ score of interpersonal communication skills. The mean score of the participants’ communication skills was significantly higher after having passed the communication skills training course (P-Value<0.05).

The results of the study detected that "communication skills" of dentists ranged from medium to high and due to the positive impact of training on communication skills, planning for courses on effective communication skills and holding practical workshops in this field should be prioritized to improve interpersonal communication among dentists.