A lesson in patience

This week I moved my website to a new platform.

It involved changing the registrar and the site was off the air for two days. I was sweating bullets and it was a real lesson in patience for me.

Thankfully we’re now up and running again. All good in the end.

Thinking about patience it struck me how some dentists I see are impatient and it damages their practice. Here’s the scenario.

A patient needs lots of treatment and the dentist tries to convince them to have the work done. The patient is hesitant. Instead of recognising the point at which patience is needed the dentist goes on pressuring the patient and subsequently the patient leaves the practice.

A practice I know quite well became a “donor” practice for patients to all the surrounding practices because the owner started trying to pressure patients into treatment.

There is a balance to be struck here.

You need to let the patient know clearly and unambiguously about ideal treatment. Having done that you need to be perceptive to the patient’s mood and attitude. If they are truly reluctant the thing to do is take the pressure off and be patient.

If you keep them in the practice they might accept treatment in 6, 12, 18 or 24 months from now. But if you are impatient and pressure them they will be gone forever.

It’s much better to keep them in the practice than lose them.