68 <strong>LVI</strong> VISIONS • JANUARY • FEBRUARY • MARCH • APRIL 2008 Josh Bernstein, DDS
g At a recent dental meeting, a famous panel of dentists and consultants fielded tients hate the sound of the drill! While we are concerned about diagnosis and treatment, the patients questions about how to improve our are worried about gagging, drown- practices. Leadership, teamwork, viing, smelly tooth dust, pain, germs, sion, communication, strategic plan- scary noises, sharp x-ray films, ning, focus, and many other great scolding hygienists, sweaty palms, buzz-word ideas were discussed. dentists with halitosis, and getting When the dust settled after the dis- the heck out of the chair! cussion, I realized that we are com- Dentists want to work on more teeth, pletely out of touch with our patients. but patients want to be comfortable! Comfort is the new frontier in den- Dentists deserve a lot of credit for tistry. As dentists, we think we have inventing local anesthetic, high- overcome this hurdle but we have speed hand-pieces, and many other not. Luckily there are materials, techniques, materials and equipment. equipment, and techniques to make However our reputation runs deep in our patients completely comfortable. the minds of the public. Movies, tele- All we have to do is make a commitvision, jokes, and popular culture dement to improve, invest appropriatepict dentists as sadistic, painful, and ly in our practices, and avail our- altogether dreadful. “As bad as a root selves of the education to provide our canal” and “like pulling teeth” are patients with consistently comfort- obvious similes. Every day, new paable experiences. It is time for us to tients come into our offices and say, surprise our patients with comfort. “Nothing personal, Doctor, but I hate Imagine how fabulous it would be if the dentist.” dentistry was universally known as We should be taking this personally the most comfortable area of health and seriously. Research shows that care. It can be. The reputation of our 50% of the public does not see a den- profession depends on each of us - tist even if they have dental insurance. every day. It is up to us as a profession to work As we evolve and behave like busi- hard to earn a better reputation. All of ness owners, we sometimes forget us should be learning everything we that the patients are still thinking the can to make a dental visit completely same old thing - they hate the dentist! comfortable so that patients will get While we are excited about various the care that they need. We now know occlusion philosophies, new materi- that this is not just about saving teeth. als, and high technology, the patients All the latest research shows that den- are still afraid of the shot! tal health reflects conditions through- While we are dinking around refinout the body, so it is really a matter of ing the perfect crown margin, the pa- public health. <strong>LVI</strong> VISIONS • JANUARY • FEBRUARY • MARCH • APRIL 2008 69