I can’t think of a better way to start 2012 than to take some time and ponder what this year will mean for your patients, your team and yourself. One of the things I have committed myself to year after year in practice is helping patients understand and take advantage of the benefits of comprehensive dentistry. The treatment plans that are created out of this process are as individual as the patient they are created by. The process allows patients to choose for themselves what the final picture of their dental health will look like, and how they want to get there. Often this simply let’s us begin with perio therapy and some basic operative that “fits” when they are ready to embark on more definitive restorations over time.
With that said, actually implementing this piece of my learning has been one of the most challenging things I have ever done in practice. I have good days and not so good days, and it is always a work in progress, but over the last ten plus years I can see when I reflect back how much I have implemented and how powerful it is for my patients, my team and myself. I had the chance over the holiday to record a podcast with Gary Takacs on this exact subject. In the podcast I talk about how we welcome new Patients into my office, inviting patients to have a comprehensive exam and how I use “The Magic Four Photos”. So many times I am asked for the language I use with patients, in the podcast I role play with Gary inviting him to have a comprehensive exam. He and I did not practice this, as a matter of fact he didn’t let me know he was going to request that I do this, so it really is how I would invite him given those circumstances in my office.
Follow the link for the podcast, or you can find it on iTunes as a free subscription to “The Thriving Dentist”, and can download it onto an ipod, iphone or other mobile device.
http://www.takacslearningcenter.com/thriving-dentist-show/004/
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