Do you sugar coat things?

When I run case acceptance seminars I do a little thought experiment.

I ask an attendee the following: "Let's say you had a medical condition and you went to see your doctor. Would you want them to tell you the honest truth or would you want them to sugar coat their diagnosis?"

So far, 100% of dentists say they want the honest truth.

Later in the seminar we get to discussing why dentists don't tell patients about everything they need. Usually the explanation is something like: "If I told them about everything they might not like it."

Interesting!

When dentists are patients, they want the honest truth from their health care provider. When they are health care providers they like to under-diagnose and sugar coat their findings because they're afraid that patients don't want to hear the truth.

You can't have it both ways.

The reality is that people want to hear the honest truth from their health care providers. The reason many dentists don't realise this is because they present that truth in an uncomfortable way.

Instead of telling people, here is what you've got and here are your alternatives they get pushy and that will offend patients.

More on this in a future article.