IDEAS WORTH THINKING ABOUT
Practical ideas for better dentistry.
Thinking on case acceptance and efficiency to create a more successful practice.
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The benefits of laziness
Smart dentists conserve their energy, eliminate unnecessary work and build practices where staff, systems and equipment carry the load.
Don’t sell dentistry
Patients want a trusted dental adviser. Common sales phrases can damage credibility, weaken relationships and make treatment acceptance harder.
Build patient trust
It’s easy to lose someone in a treatment explanation without noticing. I share a simple way to bring them back into the conversation and help them feel heard.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
An ageing curing light can waste hours of chair time. A faster light may be one of the simplest productivity investments a dentist makes.
When less is better
Fewer tools, fewer steps, fewer decisions. Minimalism in dentistry leads to better outcomes, lower costs, and a happier dentist.
Are we on the same page?
Two DAs. Two different sets of instructions. A practice visit prompted me to ask: is everyone in your team giving patients the same advice?
Advice for recent graduates
A recent graduate asked me for advice. Here are six practical things for every new dentist to do at the start of their career.
Do you have sufficient staff?
How much of your day goes into tasks someone else could do? I challenge the assumption that fewer staff means lower costs.
100% case acceptance
Over 30 years in practice, I went through four distinct stages of case acceptance. The final stage challenged what I thought success looked like.
Simple question. Big results.
A patient calls to book a check-up. Could that lead to appointments for the whole family? I share a simple question you can start using tomorrow.
Wise is the one…
Dental patients don’t want a lesson in dentistry. Overly detailed explanations can get in the way of good communication.
The Mary Celeste syndrome
The Mary Celeste mystery has an parallel in the way some practices welcome patients. What happens when someone walks through your door?
Three types of communicators
I’ve noticed three distinct communication styles. How well we think we explain treatment can be very different from what our patients actually understand.
Getting to “yes”
I spent years attending seminars on communication. The approaches boiled down to three methods. One suited the way dentists think. The others left me wondering which clever line I was supposed to use next.
Do it now…
A frustrating encounter with my local council reminded me of a rule I followed throughout my dental career: do it now. How often do we ask patients to come back for something we could have dealt with today?
An annoying question
“How likely are you to recommend us?” That familiar survey question always annoys me. It also raises a more useful question for dentists who want more patient referrals.