Increase Your Treatment Case Acceptance Rate - Part Two

A friend of mine (a dentist) once told me. "Dentists are a unique species. We are mechanically orientated and kind of "mouth architects ." We favor discipline in our clinical procedures, and once we convince ourselves that we have found the best way to do things, we are very reluctant to change."

I don't know how accurate my friend's assessment is. I am not a dentist. I am a marketing Enthusiast, but I have worked with dentists for over 25 years, and I know a little about the daily challenges and problems of managing a dental practice.

I want to bring fresh perspectives to treatment plan acceptance rates, and maybe I can convince a few dentists to make changes and take some of the suggestions on board.

?Let's get started.

?It all begins with performing a detailed examination. The exam must be complete, as it is the basis for the treatment plan. It would be best not to use most dental terms. For example, "crown," "root canal," "extraction," and so on. ). Why is that? Because it can set a sequence of adverse reactions in motion based on the patient's previous experience. As a patient, I do not want to hear anything that I don't understand, or that sounds as if it could be associated with pain. I look at it as how I feel as a patient. I don't even want to hear words like buccal or distal when I sit in the chair. I wonder what that is, and I can feel myself not getting any happier.

For a dentist, all those words are part of a standard vocabulary. Not so for patients. Just hearing the word extraction (and others) can be enough for the patient to decide not to come back, never mind coming back to listen to the treatment plan presentation.

I have spoken to dentists who told me they use a "code" when examining the patient and communicating with the assistant. They thought of abbreviations for all the terms they use. For example, they don't want the patient to hear the word extraction, so they use ION. You can develop your own "code." How does that help? Well, the patient does not hear those dreaded words. That is a good start. The next step is what the Dentist says to the patient before the examination starts. . "After the examination, I will explain everything to you and tell you the options you have and how much it will cost." Now that the Dentist starts the examination, the patient does not hear anything he could get worried about, has no idea what the possible problems are, and knows that afterward, the Dentist will explain everything. So far, so good.

Because of my background in sales and marketing, I add a few things into the "script" that generate specific, predictable answers that help to foresee how the case presentation might pan out.

I recommend that the Dentist say something like this early in the exam: "Would you love it if you could keep your teeth?" Now, the answer will open a window into the patient's mindset. The Dentist will learn a lot from the answers, and as I said earlier, it will give the Dentist an idea of what battle he has to fight when the time comes to make the case presentation. The answer the patient gives shows how important their teeth are to them. The answers can range from "of course, I want to keep my teeth," "just the front ones people can see," and "I think I want them all out, so I have no more trouble with them.

The Time Factor

?Don't present if it is foreseeable that there is insufficient time. In an ideal world, it would be great to make the examination, and the diagnosis, create the treatment plan, explain the treatment plan, discuss payment options, and then arrange the payment and begin the treatment all on the same day. A tall order, and for that reason, it is the exception and not the rule.

The reality is that patients need to return for the treatment plan presentation more often than not. Dentists I speak to tell me they try to get the presentation done simultaneously when the patient comes in for a routine visit. If that does not work, they?ask the patient to come to the office, especially for the treatment presentation. I don't know if there are dental offices that try to do it all on the same day, but I suspect that they would sabotage their chances of successfully closing a case if they tried.

There are things I want to stay away from as I have little to no experience with when to make time for presentations. Is the morning better or the afternoon? I think that this is something every Dentist has to decide how to make time for the case presentations, and it will be different from practice to practice.

To me, the crucial and most important issue is this: Do not begin a presentation without enough time to bring it to an end. You will not be able to "close."

?Something is crystal clear.?

Many case presentations fail because dentists get tempted to present cases when they have only minutes to do them. Those "three-minute comprehensive case presentations have ZERO chances of a successful outcome. What do these kinds of presentations look like?

The Dentist speaks to the patient straight after the exam, spending a few minutes explaining what needs to be done, then the Dentist says good-by and is off to see the next patient. At some point during the day, the Dentist asks the Front Desk about that patient and learns that the patient" is seriously thinking about it."?

What happens after that? The patient's treatment plan is mothballed into the incomplete treatment folder. Will that patient ever participate in filling the schedule? You tell me.

The problem: as I see it is this. If there is no time to finish the presentation, answer questions, and so on, the patient gets the perfect opportunity never to have to complete the treatment. The office might even lose the patient altogether. Apart from that, presenting without sufficient time significantly lowers overall case acceptance.

I suggest keeping it simple. If the Dentist has time to present today (and the patient has the time, too), go ahead! If the Dentist or the patient does not have the time, bring the patient back.

The Speed Factor

The more time passes, the greater the likelihood of a no-show. Ideally, patients should return within a day or two at the latest. - To be continued next week...

Thank you for your time

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Shankar Iyer DDS,MDS,FDSRCPS (Glasgow)