Learn to Love Your ‘Bad’ Patients
If you’re like most dentists, you’re in love with the idea of the “perfect patient.” The perfect patient comes in with an obvious important dental need. The perfect patient appreciates the value of ideal dentistry and the value of your diagnosis. The perfect patient accepts your comprehensive treatment plan and is eager to get started. And the perfect patient is not concerned with things like insurance coverage. They’ll pay up front for whatever is required, no questions asked.
The problem is that perfect patients walking into your practice are about as rare as Sasquatch sightings. Perfect patients already have a dentist. And if they are coming to you, they are arriving with a perfectly maintained mouth. The same goes for your long-time patients who always accept whatever you recommend. They are great patients, but there isn’t really an opportunity to make a big breakthrough.
On the other hand, the so-called “bad” patients, the patient who doesn’t keep up with basic maintenance, the one who doesn’t appreciate the value of ideal dental care, or who will only do as much as insurance covers and not a penny more, need you. You became a dentist to help people like this. Your aim is to help them see the possibilities that you know exist for them; to help them get past their insurance mindsets; to take them to another level. This is where the greatest opportunities lie, for you and for them.
Great topic Imtiaz…could be dentistry’s biggest problem. The vast majority of patients come to us with not only difficult dental problems but duffel bags filled with personal issues, fears and misconceptions about dentistry. It is the role of a leader (dentist) to influence and move people toward better health. So many dentists don’t like the “bad” ones ones. The irony is that as Jerome Groopman, the author of How Doctors Think, says, that physicians are more prone to make diagnostic errors when they don’t like their patients. As you and Joseph Campbell say — “where we stumble, our treasure lies.”
Thanks
Imtiaz, I agree wholeheartedly with this article. The proverbial ‘perfect patient’ is non-existent. My understanding stems from my personal experience. On an average, in Canada alone, our company generates 500 potential patient calls/connections every day. None of these patients would be looking for a dentist if they took their dental care seriously or knew their options. In my opinion, the dialogue must revolve around being a ‘perfect dentist’. One who can help, guide and assist such patients to optimize their oral health. The perfection will come from listening for cues and converting such opportunities into life changing experiences for patients. Dentists are navigators, quite like GPS’ and if the driver takes a wrong turn or many wrong turns, the GPS guides them back on the correct path albeit with a little bit of detour.
Thanks!
The patient who “doesn’t appreciate the value of ideal dental care, or who will only do as much as insurance covers” is not a bad patient; they are an unenlightened patient. I agree with Imtiaz that their failure to move from this position is our failure to move them to another perspective. Fear, of course, plays a huge role for many, both in receiving care and in spending their budgeted dollars. We turn these people into awesome patients when they know we sincerely care about their welfare (over our own), we give them reason to trust us, and we create a vision of possibilities for them. These can be our most rewarding patients as we watch their metamorphosis and the joy they feel from their transition.