6 Reasons to Utilize Visual Aids in your Practice

Using great visuals will save you time! Pictures and other visual aid objects often help people understand a point or concept faster– saving you the extra time it would take to explain further details!  

Have you ever seen a patients eyes glaze over when your explaining treatment in detail? Well, no more! Using good aids will help keep your patient’s attention. Not only are they often interactive (i.e., something they can grab, touch, see) but it will help you not sound like the college professor whose lectures seem to last hours.  

We already know that our brains process visuals much quicker than text. So, when we use visual aids to help interpret what we’re trying to explain we’ve just helped the patient get a clear picture of what that looks like; rather than them taking time to process what you’re saying then coming up with their own “picture” 

Have you ever left a meeting or gotten off a call and you remember some things but not all? Do you take notes during a meeting to help you remember? Well presentation visuals can help your patients remember what you are reviewing with them! This is especially imperative when those patients need to go home and reiterate that information to a spouse or partner. Research shows that a combination of both visual aids and verbiage increases the chance of that information making it to long term memory.  

The ultimate goal of your treatment consults is to get the patient to do something right?! I.e start treatment with your office. To inspire people to act and commit they must remember, and they must care. If your patient wasn’t paying attention, seemed confused, the content didn’t resonate with them or they forgot what you said, do you think they will be able to start treatment? Visual aids give people something to resonate with. This is an important step to treatment acceptance.  

Visual aids will help you too! Most of the time they can act as bullet points for our own speech; giving you the cues you need to flow from one point to the next. Visual aids can help keep you on track rather than rolling off into a tangent. They will also help you keep a clear and concise point.  

• Before/after airway models 
• Photos- showcase your own before and after’s!  
• Videos- Do you have a TV? Don’t be afraid to have your patients watch a short video (Right to grow, Matthew Walker, etc) 
• Banners- Do you have your roll up banners nearby? Use that as a talking point. 
• Slides from the PEM – Don’t hesitate to print off and laminate any key slides! We recommend the slide showing craniofacial growth and the tree of symptoms. 

• Don’t forget we have a looping video you can use and play in your waiting room! This eye catching and informative video is a great way to plant the seed about airway! 

• Banners: By now we know how important visual aids are. Place your banners in the areas of your office with the most foot traffic. 

We highly recommend using new patient folders. This way your patients have something to take home and reflect on. Plus, if they have to relay this information or treatment to a spouse/ partner they now have visual aids to do so effectively. 

Here’s what we recommend putting in your new patient folders!