Student name: HUYNH NGOC BAO TRAN
Student ID: C190486
Report Assignment 2: Orthodontics (Dr. Takaharu Abe)
Describe open and closed questions. (Meaning, characteristics and usage, specific usage in medical interview)
Report
Open questions
 Is one that can be answered in details,
free-form.
Meaning
 Encourage the patients to tell a
narrative or story.
 Can receive richer information.
 Using questions begin with words:
Characteristic “What”, “Who”, “Where”, “When”,
s “Why”, “How”, “How long”, “How
often”, etc. or phrases like “Tell me
about…”
To encourage a full, details answer about
respondents’ thoughts and feelings
Usage
regarding a topic  give questioner more
information to work with.
 Considered an efficient method
gathering medical information from
patients, allowing the patient to
actually describe their complaints,
what's bothering them, what they're
Specific usage feeling, at the same time helps they
in medical feel more comfortable.
interview  Develop a better understanding of the
patient and their needs, get more
context behind their complaints.
 To provide information that is far
more precise and patient-specific than
closed-ended questions.
Dentist: Please tell me a little bit more
about your tooth pain.
Patient: I have no pain in my teeth now.
After taking a bath yesterday, there was a
Example
light, not so bad pain. I am afraid it would
be worse than this so I came to see a
dentist.
Closed questions
Can be answered with “yes,” “no,” a
number, or a short answer.
 Can receive specific information.
 Provide immediate results.
 Often good for surveys ("Health-
history" surveys…)
To get a specific answer from the
respondents, in a specific time.
 To check and confirm what the
practitioners have just received from the
answers of open-questions.
 To specifically ask about each and every
medical problem - asking a lot of
questions - to get patients’ "yes" or "no"
answer.
 To get the specific information in case
the patient will never tell the
practitioner about them if they don't
specifically ask about the problem.
Dentist: Have you been to a dentist when
you felt pain?
Patient: No. It stopped on its own.
Dentist: Are you sure you are not in pain
right now?
Patient: No