Dental Tips |2 min read

Why You Should Spend More Time With Your Patients

One of the best ways to ensure you never run dry of cosmetic treatments is to make patients a priority. This means going beyond just providing excellent care. You really need to get to know your patients.

Efficiency is an admirable goal, but when we take it too far we can forget the importance of the human aspect of care. Don’t insist on finishing your procedure rapidly at the expense of increasing time spent with your patients. Focus on building a relationship and communicating past the usual patient-doctor back and forth.

Spending More Time With Patients for Case Acceptance

patients case acceptanceYou don’t need to be a brilliant people person to get this right. If it doesn’t come naturally, take the time to educate yourself on interpersonal relationships. You don’t have to force it, nor do you have to fake it. But having a framework for how to interact with many different types of personalities can help you be comfortable delving deeper into productive patient relationships.

People are more willing to buy from those they like. Cosmetic treatments, regardless of whether we think they are necessary, are seen as an expensive, often unnecessary purchase. That’s why weak communication skills can mean lower treatment acceptance rates for cases exceeding $4000. If your goal is to increase cosmetic care, you need to pay attention to what people want.

Patients who have generalized decay or advanced occlusal wear are great to consider for working toward cosmetic case acceptance. They might not seem like obvious smile makeover candidates, but with the right communication they can be. Give them the kind of understanding environment they need to express their desire for an improved smile.

Functionally driven cosmetic dentistry is a much easier sell than cosmetic dentistry on its own, so don’t shy away from it simply because you assume most of these patients won’t invest in their care. Interestingly, these patients are also much better referrers because the nature of their treatment is much less embarrassing to divulge. Many patients whose dental care is purely cosmetic don’t want to give out that information.
 
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