Educating not selling

When patients feel as though they are being sold to, they instantly put up a barrier that makes treatment acceptance less likely. It’s tough to prevent this happening because sometimes patients will mistake your suggestions for necessary or essential treatment as a recommendation for expensive treatment. So how can you ensure patients see their clinical condition in the same way as you, without either of you feeling as though you are delivering a sales pitch?

There is a gap between what patients want and what the dentists believe the patient needs. Since most chronic dental disease is painless, and most patients assume that if there is no pain then there isn’t a problem, it’s no wonder that we have trouble convincing some patients that treatment is necessary.

Patients generally have knowledge-gaps regarding dental disease. If they knew exactly what we knew, many more would want the same treatment that we would want for ourselves. Of course we can’t just give our patients all our knowledge, therefore we need to just convey the fewest key messages to get the job done.