Kiroku, in short, is a platform that’s been built by dentists to help reduce the time, and mental attention we are forced to place on writing clinical notes.

This company was born out of the frustration held by myself, a dentist, concerned with how much time and effort I spent each day ensuring my notes were meticulously detailed. And, after speaking to thousands of other dentists in the UK, it’s apparent this frustration is ubiquitous.

I’ve yet to meet a dentist who enjoys writing their clinical notes, so naturally it upset me to learn that when we add it up, we dentists are spending an enormous 25% of our working day writing them.

Writing clinical notes is of course a fundamental necessity, but does it really have to come with the cost of such negative impact on job satisfaction?

Manual work in dentistry is extremely rewarding, as are the varied conversations you will have with lots of different patients each day. The most stressful and unrewarding parts of dentistry always originate from the administrative considerations of the job: “did I record that?”, “did I go through every single treatment option with that patient?” not to mention the legal implications of these perpetual nagging questions.

As a dentist (and I am certain this applies to numerous professions) you are forced into having a sixth sense as to whether you need to be careful with a patient. And in those situations, we try to be even more thorough and meticulous. Yet we are also advised to treat each and every patient like the ones we fear and this can get increasingly exhausting.

When deciding the amount of information to give to a patient, it often feels like walking a tightrope. You are professionally obliged to talk through every option (and all the potential risks associated with each respective course of action), yet you must always balance this against what the patient can absorb in a short amount of time.

Sometimes explaining in detail can overwhelm the patient to such an extent that they cannot see the forest for the trees and end up leaving an appointment without a clear understanding. Furthermore, we’re expected to always be able to gauge the patient’s level of understanding and interest.

We know as clinicians that consent is an ongoing process. It relies on providing the patient with all the information necessary for them to make an informed decision, and then ultimately respecting that decision.

But how can we ensure patients are making informed choices? What about consent forms? We know (regrettably) that these consent forms are not binding, but they can often feel better than nothing.

At Kiroku we believe the route to truly strong consent lies in seeing the entire process as an exercise to increase the patient’s understanding, rather than considering it as a legal obligation. “I am giving this information because I want my patient to truly understand”, rather than “I’m doing this because I have to”.

Altering this angle allows you to focus on providing the information in a consistent way that caters for different levels of understanding and interest. At Kiroku, we think that the way to do this is by using interactive technology. A platform that the patient can access that will provide the relevant information in a clear and simple way but that you can dive into more detail if interested, similar to Wikipedia, but specific and relevant to their own dental condition.

In doing so, the patient can be provided with the essential minimal information in a consistent and evidence-based way, outside of the clinical setting, with the ability to access more detail, or see frequently asked questions on the topic if they would like to do so. When the patient returns for treatment, you will be aware that the patient has viewed the information provided, and therefore can enter the conversation knowing there is a base level of understanding, answering specific queries that the patient may have.

Additionally, this can simplify your note taking, as all the information which has been provided is recorded, so you can focus on entering that unique information specific to that patient or that clinical situation.

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