“Wise is the one who learns to dumb it down”

— Quote from Curtis Tyrone Jones.

Imagine if your car broke down and you took it to a repair shop to be fixed. What you’d want is for the mechanic to carefully examine the car, tell you what is wrong, tell you how long the repair will take and what will be the cost.

“It’s the gear box. It will take two days to fix and cost $1,450.

Now imagine instead that the mechanic pulled down a wall chart and got out an eight-page brochure and said:

“Let me show you how a gear box works.”

If they did that, you’d think that they had lost their mind.

You don’t want a lesson on gear boxes, you just want your car fixed. Would it surprise you if I told you that most dental patients feel the same way about dentistry?

In fact, if you bamboozle a patient with long, technical, jargon-filled explanations that is the opposite of good communication. They find it boring, irritating and confusing.

The overwhelming majority don’t want to know where the reamer goes, or the type of porcelain you use, or how many layers of lining you apply. They could care less about that.

Sure, if there are some necessary warnings you need to give those but do it simply without unnecessary technical details.

Which brings me back to the title of this article…