Dental illustration is helpful to the public for its ability to make complex information more accessible, comprehensible and actionable. While often seen in patient-provider settings, these visualizations can also serve as useful tools for patients to educate themselves, becoming more health literate to make more informed choices about their health and the treatment options provided by healthcare professionals. By translating health concepts, procedures, and conditions into detailed and accurate visuals, these illustrations assist individuals without healthcare backgrounds in understanding information and increasing their health literacy.
The term “health literacy” refers to an individual’s capacity to access, understand, and apply health-related information. This includes skills in reading, writing, and communicating effectively within healthcare situations. Health literacy significantly affects a person’s ability to navigate the healthcare system and make well-informed decisions regarding care. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, just 12% of individuals possess the proficiency needed to effectively understand and manage their health. Dental illustrations can improve these conditions by making information on prevention and wellness more widely accessible. As noted by Health Literacy Research and Practice, health literacy often varies based on social and economic factors, with certain groups being disproportionately uninformed or unaware of health-related information. Dental illustrations can help increase equity in understanding by simplifying the way health concepts are explained through visual representations.
Outside of the dental office, most health information exists within health professional or scientific journals. This can be detrimental to the public by indirectly demanding that one’s health literacy be dependent on their ability to access and understand the jargon-heavy health information. According to the Center for Plain Language, the average American reads at an 8th-grade level or below, which is often insufficient to comprehend and retain health information as it is currently being disseminated. Illustrations can serve as a supplementary information delivery system, one that better allows for all members of the general public to access and comprehend these concepts. It enables patients and their families to better grasp diagnoses, treatment options, preventative measures, and other healthcare processes. This helps individuals and communities not only better understand health information, but allows for more confidence to make better decisions related to their own healthcare or the healthcare of anyone they are responsible for.
By simplifying complex language into visual formats, illustration empowers the public with the knowledge they need to improve both their health literacy and their overall health.
