January - LVI Visions

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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.
LVI VISIONS • JANUARY • FEBRUARY • MARCH • APRIL 2008 69