Fear of rejection

"The majority of dentistry is not completed because it was never presented."— L. D. Pankey

The more I talk with dentists at my case acceptance seminar the more I realise there is fear in the profession — many, perhaps most, dentists are terrified of rejection.

This fear shows itself by what the dentists choose to show patients.

Let's say a patient attends with a broken tooth. You can say "I'll fix that!" and then do a filling. This path has zero chance of the patient saying "no".

Or, you can offer the patient a crown or onlay. Higher fee, but better, more long lasting restoration. But, if you do this, the patient might say "no" and just go with a filling.

If you have a very fragile ego this can lead to a feeling of rejection. You might feel bad for a while.

Many dentists get around this problem by giving their treatment suggestions in extremely vague language: "Mr Patient, you might perhaps want to one day consider thinking about looking at doing a crown on that tooth."

By expressing the treatment option in this wishy washy fashion there is no chance of rejection because the patient doesn't have a clue what you're talking about.

Do you use words such as "think about", "one day", "perhaps" and "look at" because of your fear of rejection?