How to increase your patient acceptance?
After toiling hard to attain the dental skills, the new challenge these days to let the patient say yes to your treatments. The patient acceptance challenge is hitting dentists like never before as the patient and doctor find themselves on different pages. And all you need to make a deal is to be on a same page. Acceptance and rejection plays pretty heavily on our subconscious mind. So it becomes very important to understand the correct protocol to increase patient acceptance for our treatment plans. There are two basic things that the patient has to possess to accept the treatment – either demand or need. So the very first tip is
Understanding the demand and need of the patient
We as dental surgeons have to keep in mind the impact that the demand has on patient psychology. You need not serve it to the patient, the patient will automatically say i want to get that done. This frequently happens in patient with issue in the Function, Aesthetic or hygiene in their mouth which they have come for. But most of the times the chief complaint is not the only treatment plan and we start serving them with our recipe of so called “comprehensive dental treatment plan” which is way too heavy for the patient as the patient wants to fulfill the demand and need has been tried but without proper protocol. Creating a need for a treatment is a complex process. That is why presentations in dental treatment plan has come into trend. Presentations in dental treatment plan refers to the powerpoint presentation of the complete treatment plan wherein the complete paper work right from registration, medical history, clinical findings, investigations are put in a pictorial format where in the patient can easily understand the true picture of his mouth. Certain factors like understanding the personality the patient and the decision maker by knowing their psychological profiles helps a lot in carving out a customized, acceptable, practical and long lasting solution.
Confidence & Belief
Most of the times dentists just run into the treatment plans at the very nick of the second the patient comes back to consultation chair or even in dental chair sometimes. But dental treatment planning can not be that simple and quick for high end cases and needs time for planning and considering the feasibility and longevity of the plan. This ultimately lands us in a sense of disbelief as we have not given it a real good look and just presented the treatment without proper planning. After examination, documenting the case for planning is the most significant step which most of us forget and then find ourselves in disbelief of our very own “comprehensively carved dental treatment plan”. This ultimately results in the under confidence which is reflecting thorough our eyes and evident from our body language. While presenting the treatment plans, the confidence needs to be brewing like an aromatic coffee and this needs the seeds of belief system (coffee seeds) that this treatment plan is the best. So documenting, preparing and presenting a dental treatment plan is the way to go to improve upon the basics of treatment acceptance.
Training & Rehearsing
We as dental teams are not trained as in yet by any professional academy to understand the importance of training for soft skills. We go to a lot of courses but that covers up your domain skills only. We take soft skills for granted and consider it to be talent. But in reality it is not. Soft skills ( communication skills, body language and presentation skills) are the skills that can be acquired by intensive training. That is what makes most clinics stand out from the crowd. Human resource training is an integral part of preparation for case acceptance. Receptionist is the most important staff member of any clinic which is why we need her to be at the top level of training so that she understands the psychology well and knows the art of changing her level of communication according to the patient. The subtle art of communication paves a long way to connect with a new patient. Again we as dentists need to know what, when and how to talk. Moreover, team needs to be ready for the eccentric situations as well.
Clinic Environment
We have been revered with gift of 5 senses to attract, influence and accept or reject anything. The sixth sense being the intuition which is covered by soft skill management. And yes the seventh sense these days is money. The clinical environment needs to be such that nothing goes untouched as far as the 5 senses are concerned. The eye needs clutter free, clean and polished center. The ear needs to hear music or the words that will help them feel more comfortable. The tongue needs to be offered some water, tea or coffee. The touch can be a warm, friendly hand shake or the way you do the dental examination. The nose needs a aroma which is calming, soothing and masks the usual smell of the regular dental clinics. So engross your patients with these time tested environment and get ready for acceptance.