Fresh Start Dental Careers
16 Westlake Blvd N3T0C9 Brantford, ON, Canada

Sounds good Doc, but let me think about it How many times do you hear this phrase from your patients? If your practice is anything like mine, probably a dozen times every single day. I used to let patients go home to think about it, and then let us know when they are ready. You already know what happens next. Phone tag, emails, mild stalking until our staff gets too busy with something else to keep following up. Or even worse until the patient tells us to go away and le...ave them alone. This is the way it worked in my practice for over 40 years, until it dawned on me that maybe just maybe I need to think about it was code for I don’t want to do this treatment but I’m too embarrassed to say so to your face. There had to be a better way! How do we find out exactly why the patient is hesitating, so that we can address those concerns and help move the patient forward? These days, I just ask them. The best solutions truly are the simplest. My response when a patient tells me they need to think about it: That’s great Mrs Jones. In my experience, when someone tells me they need to ’think about it’, that means they are either concerned about the cost, or that this treatment is not right for them, or that I am not the right doctor for them. What’s stopping you from going ahead? Sometimes, the patient tells me that they just aren’t interested in treatment right now, to which I say, Great! You know where to find me. If anything changes, I’ve got your back!" More commonly, once I know why they are hesitating, I can address those objections head-on, face to face, while they are sitting right in front of me. This is way more effective than delegating this to a staff member who will try to do it over email or phone, weeks down the road. The result? Less follow-up work, better case acceptance, and happier patients. Want to improve your case acceptance for every day dentistry? Click below to learn more. https://www.drmichaelling.com/everyday-case-acceptance

By far the #1 complaint I hear from dentists about case acceptance is that their patients are too insurance dependent. I hear it from frustrated colleagues all the time: My patients will only do what their insurance will cover! We send so many predeterminations and then the patient never gets back to us!...Continue reading