Trauma-informed care is treating patients in a way that intentionally tries to avoid retraumatization and supports updated and processed realities about safety and control in the patient’s life. This type of care recognizes that best intentions and dental training can still have harmful impacts when we lean a person with sexual trauma back in our chairs.

“People don’t speak about trauma histories for a variety of reasons; many of them are due to unconscious thoughts of reasoning. They include the belief that the people around them will not understand, shame about their own response to the trauma, difficulty recalling details of the trauma, and fear of the overwhelming emotional or physical fallout from the disclosure,” write Maggie Augustyn, DDS, FAGD, and Evan Rosenthal, MS, LPCC, LADC

Read about what steps dentists can take when a patient appears to need trauma-informed care in the October issue of AGD Impact.