Case acceptance? No problem.

Good morning everybody. It's Monday morning in St. Louis. I'm rolling up on 10 o'clock or so. The weather is surprisingly warm considering last week, you know, we had that polar vortex that rolled through. Extremely cold, you know, I think we were in the negative 30s for a little while, including a wind chill. So a couple of thoughts for you this morning about treatment plan presentation and about helping patients say yes to treatment. So we all come across times in our lives when our presentation skills are lacking for a variety of reasons, or we feel like patients aren't willing to move forward with treatment. So a couple of thoughts, a couple of real simple observations. You know, number one, are we presenting in a way that helps the patient to understand their condition and the consequences of inaction? Meaning, you know, do they understand that this is cavity, or this fracture, or this abscess? It's your condition, it's not something that I made up. This is your condition, and if I leave that alone, or if you as a patient leave that alone, here's what's going to happen. Is that something that concerns you? Helping them to understand that this is something that is in their mouth, it's in their body, and we want to help them. We want to treat this. And then number two, being compassionate and caring and really assisting the patient in understanding that we have their best interest at heart, which mandates that we actually do. So helping them understand the problem and the consequence of inaction, as well as making sure they feel that we're concerned, really concerned about them. You know, it's really critical that we establish trust very early on in the discussion with our patients, and then develop a rapport, a connection, and help them understand that we're concerned about their best interest. Otherwise, we're going to have a hard time doing much dentistry, except for those patients that come in in imminent pain or, you know, substantial problems. So we want to make sure that the patients understand that we're really in this for them, rather than them coming to see us. Although they came into my office, I'm here for them, not the other way around. So keep that in mind as you're going throughout your day. You know, our goal, our focus should be to develop trust, create rapport and connection, help them understand that we're concerned about them in a way that we want to resolve these problems or prevent significant problems from developing. You know, ultimately, doing treatment sooner ends up being a lot cheaper, for most people that is, and so if they understand that this is in their best interest to try to do things as quickly as we can, even today, even right now, then a lot of times they'll be willing to jump forward with that treatment. So just a few thoughts on treatment planning, and remember that we, as clinicians, have a lot to do with a patient saying yes. If they don't feel confident in us, then there's going to be a lot of resistance to moving forward with treatment. They have to feel confidence in us, which means that we have to feel confident in our diagnosis and in our ability to execute. But even more importantly, they have to feel comfortable with us. So making sure that they understand that we're dentists. Second, we're human beings first, and that we're concerned about them on an individual level rather than being a dental robot that's designed just to do injections and drilling. So anyway, those are a few thoughts today. Bear in mind the patient's best interest really, if they understand and they feel like you have their best interest at heart, there's a very good chance that they'll be much more willing to move forward with treatment. All right, thanks.