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Taking The Time For What Really Matters—Building Trust With Our Patients
by Allison Watts, DDS
Before we go any further down the road in this process, let’s talk about the biggest challenge regarding the new patient phone calls and first appointment– time management. When you first start doing this, the phone calls will likely last a lot longer than you and your team are used to, so the people who answer the phone need to be given plenty of time on the phone with the new patients. It works best if there is one person that handles the new patient calls and someone else checking out patients and tending to the other front office duties–that way the new patient gets our full and undivided attention.
It can take time to develop the kind of relationship we want with our patients and it all starts with the first phone call. This phone call sets the stage for their new patient “experience” and for the care and attention they will receive from our office. It prepares them for the fact that we are “different”.
The new patient visit in our office is an hour and a half, much of which is doctor time. Depending on the patient’s needs, it may take a second hour and a half visit and even a third visit to get all the information we need and help the patient understand what’s really going on in their masticatory system.
I know it seems like a lot of time, but it is well worth it! I believe that this first appointment is of enormous value. It is an opportunity to help us and the patients figure out if our office is the right place for them. It allows us to discover who that patient is, their attitude towards dentistry, a history of their past treatment, and helps us understand how they make decisions related to their health. It also helps us understand their desires and expectations for their dental future. We do take an opportunity at this visit to share about our practice—our philosophy of care and how and why we do what we do.
It is important in a relationship-based practice to do everything we can to create trust with our patients and one of the best ways I’ve discovered to do that is to spend enough time in the beginning. Relationships are based on trust and when you are practicing comprehensive, relationship-based dentistry, I believe trust is essential–trust that the dentist has the patients’ best interests at heart, and that the dentist can deliver “the goods”. It also takes the dentist trusting that the patient understands and really wants the treatment and accepts the responsibility of properly caring for it.
At the core of many of the challenges we face with patients is the lack of trust:
1. Fearful patients because of past painful or emotional dental experiences.
2. Patients with a lack of dental education or who have had poor dental care or results in the past.
3. Patients with negative beliefs, such as they will lose their teeth because “it runs in the family.”
4. Patients that feel it’s all about the money and the fees and or insurance.
The value of this first appointment is incalculable as it is the start of a process that can reverse patients’ negative attitudes towards dentistry and set the stage for a lifetime of oral health. It includes getting acquainted and beginning a collaborative relationship between the patient and dental team. It allows the doctor, team, and patient a chance to discuss what’s important to them and to plan for a future of oral health, rather than just leaving their health to chance. This process begins to develop a sound and trusting relationship between the patient, me and my team.
My learning and teaching dental experiences have led me to understand that dental health is about more than diagnosing dental problems and their causes, it is about the human being that experiences those problems. It takes time for us to learn about the person we will possibly be treating and how they experience their problems, how they got where they are and where they want to go. We are all learning in this process. When the patient first comes in, they know much more about their mouth than I do. Once we’ve gone through the exam process, hopefully I know more about their mouth than they do and can help them really understand the following:
1. What’s good and what’s working
2. What needs attention, what we can do to help—prioritize now
3. Implications of doing nothing
4. What they could do if they wanted to; optional care
5. Benefits of treatment
Patients who understand these things make better decisions regarding their care. It’s up to us to be willing to offer them such an experience. A dentist and team who cares will be compassionate and will set things up to be able to listen to their patients and understand the nature of their fears, misgivings or skepticism. It is only through this that the mistrust barrier can be broken. Although I believe that it is extremely important to deliver high quality dental treatment, it is equally important to have an atmosphere of mutual trust.
I’ve discovered that there are many different combinations of teeth, mouths and people and each one needs to be treated as an individual. Spending time in the beginning paves the way for both me and my patients to learn the uniqueness of their oral system, its positives and its risk factors. It helps us to create a plan for success, with enduring preventive care and treatment. Taking the time to get to know them as a person as well as doing a complete oral diagnosis is important to be able to help them have enduring success with our treatment recommendations.
I highly recommend that you begin to put aside time in your schedule to allow patients (as well as you and your team) this experience. You may want to start with just one comprehensive exam a month, then two, then three… etc. I believe if you do it properly, you will want to do all your new patient exams this way because it increases the level of trust, relationship, case acceptance and average case size (you won’t need as many new patients if you do it this way). It’s also more fun because patients are involved in the process and often they will ask for the treatment they need because they truly WANT it.
Through this process of building trust and proper diagnosis, treatment planning and treatment execution, we can change and extend our patient’s lives!
