GENRE PARAMETERS OF DOCUMENTS OF INFORMED CONSENT FOR DENTAL TREATMENT

Abstract

The practice of informed consent plays a very important role in health care and clinical research as the main purpose of this type of documents is to improve the quality of the health care provided and the life quality of patients. Nevertheless, the genre parameters of the documents have been paid surprisingly little attention to. The aim of this study was to specify and characterize the genre parameters of informed consent for dental treatment. The results obtained based on the thorough investigation of 50 informed consent formed applied in the USA medical settings licensed to provide various dental services. Communicative purposes of this genre consist in providing patients’ with specific information about the character of dental procedure in order to build up their psychological readiness for making an autonomous decision. Though the forms studied are designed for various kinds of dental treatment, they are stereotyped and structurally the texts of the documents are divided into six segments, which contain the explanation and guidance for each stage of obtaining the consent and questions to elucidate understanding. The content of informed consent has been primarily framed through the language of medicine, but linguistics means chosen are fairly explicit for lay persons. Investigating documents of a particular field of human activity can contribute much in better understanding of professional discourse functioning as well as outline the prognosis of its development.