Affirm – to validate, confirm, or state positively the patient’s interests or efforts.

Change talk – the patient’s expressions of desire, reason, ability or need to make a change in oral health behaviors.

Collaborative – the clinician and patient working jointly to identify and achieve behavior change.

Develop discrepancy – the clinician uncovers any perceived inconsistencies among the patient’s health status, behaviors and values, to create an internal tension and provide a rationale for change.

Elicit, Provide, Elicit – an approach the clinician uses to ask, listen and inform that encourages patients to talk about and hear their intrinsic motivation for change.

Express empathy – the clinician asks questions and actively listens to patient’s responses to indicate understanding and sensitivity to patient’s desires and feelings.

Open-ended Questions – questions requiring more than a yes/no or short-answer response.

Patient-centered – an approach that focuses on the patient’s needs, desires and internal motivations rather than the clinician’s goals.

Reflective listening – the clinician reflects back what he/she percieves the patient has communicated.

Rolling with resistance – the clinician acknowledges the patient’s resistance to change rather than continuing to push forward.

Self-efficacy/Autonomy – the patient’s self-directing ownership of behavior change.

Summarize – the clinician recaps what the patient has said.