The Problem With Being a Really Good Dentist

You get a new patient in the chair (always an exciting time) and you provide a comprehensive examination and diagnosis to the best of your abilities – skills you have spent a lot of time developing, talent that sets you apart from many other dentists.

This may well be the first time the patient has experienced dentistry at this level. You present your findings and the patient responds by saying, with an air of suspicion, “My last dentist never told me this.”

Of course, you know that not all dentists are created equal; however, like it or not, to many patients a dentist is a dentist. If what you're saying is different from what they've heard in the past, they're going to wonder who they should believe – the dentist they knew for years or this new one who is talking about all this stuff they've never heard of before?

So what can you do? You can't very well come out and say that their last dentist just wasn't that good, but you also don't want to compromise on your clinical integrity and dial back your diagnosis to fit their expectations. This is where the details of your practice culture come into play.

It's that first phone call, where the front desk person asks the right questions and sets the tone for what the patient can expect.

It's the first impression on arrival, where they are greeted personally and warmly and given a complete tour.

It's the personalized way that their information is gathered.

All this is important so that the patient is not “blindsided” when you offer a diagnosis that is different from what they have heard before. In fact, if you do it right, patients will expect that. They will know before they get in the chair that this practice is different.

If they're going to buy into the idea that you are different from other dentists, it's important that not just your diagnosis is different, but that their entire experience is different.