Why Dentists Need to be Great Tour Guides
“Let me take you on a tour…”
These words create a sense of curiosity and anticipation because they signal that a story is about to unfold, and everyone loves a story. When it comes to getting a dental exam you can be sure patients prefer a story to a recital of clinical findings, much of which may be beyond the scope of their understanding.
The story of the exam should be about taking a tour of the mouth together with you as the guide, pointing out areas of interest along the way, offering insights and inviting questions.
At Spear, we teach a four-step process for leading this tour, starting with an esthetic evaluation and discussion of appearance issues, and then moving to function, where you assess muscle issues. The next steps are structure, where you examine existing restorations and look for issues that may be developing, and finally, biology, which includes a full periodontal assessment.
I’m not going to get into the clinical details of the exam for the obvious reason that I’m not a clinician. My purpose here is to get you thinking about the value possibilities of performing an exam in this systematic way and how you can approach it in a way that truly engages the patient.
First of all, ask permission to take them on this tour to get their participation and buy-in early. Be sure to point out positive things you find along the way, not just concerns. Keep it conversational and jargon-free, and above all, invite questions at every stage. In fact, the best way of measuring your success at performing an effective exam tour is by the quality of questions you get. There is no time better spent than stopping to explain something thoroughly that the patient has asked about. Getting the right questions gives you permission to “sell.”
Remember, we’re not talking about treatment planning here. This is an expedition that you and the patient are going on together so that you both get a better understanding of the conditions and possibilities in their mouth. When you approach it this way you increase your chances of getting the patient to become genuinely interested and involved in their oral health care. When this happens patients are much more receptive to what you have to say next and you’ll find that case acceptance improves dramatically.
Very good analogy…but please remember, there are tour guides and there are tour guides. That is the difference between reading the AAA Guide and travel writing. How the trip is described is moire important than just describing the place. It truly is a story—and that what great writers do—that is why dentists must be creative in their case presentations. I love the analogy.
Barry Polansky
Agree with you Imtiaz and also Barry makes a great point. I like the tour guide ananalogy. And with that in mind it makes me think about when I have had great tour guides and then ones that were just doing their jobs or just bad ones.
The great ones make you feel comfortable and at home. They get you excited and anxious for what’s around the corner. When your done, you are usually enlightened and satisfied. You almost feel like you have know them your whole life in just that two hours. I’m sure we have all had tour guides like this on vacations etc., and they can teach us the qualities we should have as tour guides of the mouth.
These “great” tour guides LOVE what they do. You can feel it and see it. Their heart bleeds what they are doing. this makes the tour even more “AUTHENTIC”.
Their attitude is always positive.
And Lastly, you get a great sense that they genuinely care about the people they serve.. They want to give them their best!
We should always do this for our patients and at new patient exams. I have read Barry’s book and I agree that the new patient appointment/exam should be sacred. We should be laser focused and excited at these appointments rather than have it stuck in the middle of the day when we don’t have time to focus.
We should view our time and effort at these appointments as a Gift to our patients. We know that they are not productive from a numbers standpoint when you think about the day to day production/hr scenarior. But, you can’t think of it in this manner. I have always been taught when you give, whether time or money with a joyful heart, you are rewarded ten fold somewhere down the road.
That reward for me with new patients, is seeing them accept comprehensive care and move towards the best dentistry possible. It doesn’t happen with every patient, however, it should not mean that every patient doesn’t get my best effort in regard to this.
Thanks Imtiaz
John– You are a great example of someone who “gets it.” One of my pet peeves is consultants who teach dentists scripts to get through their exam and case presentations. This is not the answer to success in dentistry. Your description of the tour guide is right on.
Barry Polansky
Thanks Barry, really enjoyed your book and it has helped me in my journey. I couldn’t agree more that the key to a great practice and life is that new patient appointment and exam. It drives me nutts to hear my friends talk about consultants who come into their practice and all the focus they place on numbers, hygiene numbers, etc. In reality, the numbers are only a result of doing the little things right and focusing your heart and attention in the right places. And the focus should always be on doing your best for each patient, especially in Dx/tx planning. I think it’s OK to look at numbers in the right context but it should be more to measure how effective you are rather than drive your actions.
It’s kind of like a football team. When they are winning, everything is great. However, when they start losing, the fans and players start focusing on all the wrong things. Then, as we have always hear, the coach says we are going to simplify things and get back to the fundamentals.
One of the most important fundamentals in dental practice should be, as you say, the new patient exam. It’s what sets the tone and drives everything else in practice. If there was a magic bullet to inject into underperforming practices, it would be this above all else.
As Imtiaz always says, you can’t produce well unless their are the right patients on the schedule. You can’t fill the schedule unless they say yes to treatment. And you can’t have them say yes to treatment unless you build trust, build value, and communicate appropriately all your findings with self confidence….
I love this stuff…. haha. Thanks Imtiaz and Barry!
John – Sounds like you really have it. I too get crazy about consultants who concentrate on the numbers and systems, when it comes down to leadership, self-development and communication skills. So many dentists try to develop new systems and marketing plans instead of working on themselves. The heart and soul of the practice lies in the dentist’s ability to communicate ideas effectively…this takes time and skill.
I also love this stuff.
Barry
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