What patients value

Dentists are trained to think about time.

We schedule in time blocks, we measure procedures in minutes and somewhere along the way many of us absorbed the idea that time equals value. The longer a procedure takes, the more we think it’s worth.

If a procedure goes unusually well and finishes early, the instinct is to discount as though the patient deserves a refund for the minutes we didn’t use.

That instinct is understandable. It’s also wrong.

Years ago I was working in an interstate practice. I work faster than average and on this particular day I had been very productive. Lots of patients seen, good quality dentistry delivered, everyone happy.

When I went out to the front desk at the end of the session I was horrified to discover that the receptionist had discounted away my productivity. Patients had been charged less because their appointments had finished early. The total for discounts given away that day was $948.

The receptionist thought she was doing the right thing. She was applying the same logic most dentists apply; that time equals value, and less time means less to charge.

What she was actually doing was penalising skill. Every dollar she discounted was a dollar deducted from my years of practice, refined techniques, and carefully built systems.

The memory of that day has never left me.

Some years later I met a woman socially who was rubbing her jaw. I asked her what had happened. She told me she’d been at the dentist that day and they’d spent 90 minutes drilling on her tooth to make a crown. It was, she said, one of the worst experiences of her life.

I asked her a simple question. If there were two ways to do a crown, one that took 30 minutes and one that took 90 minutes, and both produced the same result which would she choose?

She looked at me as though I’d asked something stupid. “30 minutes”, she replied.

Then she said something that has stayed with me ever since. She said: “I would gladly pay an extra $200 for the 30-minute technique over the 90-minute one.” Ponder that for a moment.

Here’s a patient volunteering to pay more not for a better clinical outcome but for a shorter, more comfortable experience. She wasn’t paying for the crown. She would be glad to pay more to get off the chair sooner.

Dentists and patients are measuring completely different things. The dentist measures chair time: the longer it takes, the more expensive the fee. The patient measures discomfort, anxiety, and how quickly it will all be over. These two value systems are different. The dentist who understands this has a significant advantage over the one who doesn’t.

If you want to explore what efficient dentistry actually looks like in practice, the principles are simpler than most dentists expect.

There’s nothing quite like the moment when a patient sits up after a crown preparation, looks at you with mild surprise, and says: “That was so much better than last time.” It’s about the experience and the experience is something you can design.

The dentist who finishes a crown preparation in 30 minutes and charges full price isn’t overcharging. They are charging for a skill that took years to develop, for systems that were carefully built, and for an outcome the patient values.

The dentist who takes 90 minutes and charges the same or more, is overvaluing time but undervaluing what patients find important.

Efficiency isn’t just good for your schedule. It turns out it’s good for your fees as well.

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