As the Dental Office-Concierge I know that most dentists spend 3/4 of their day staring at teeth. They obsess over the precise position and angles of your teeth. They eat, sleep and breathe teeth. Afterall, they went to school for years to learn all about teeth. They are always reading about new techniques, oral hygiene discoveries, and the latest research – about teeth. And, of course, you want a dentist who takes your teeth seriously and knows what they are doing!
Sometimes dentists make the mistake of thinking that you want to know EVERYTHING about teeth – just like they do! Which means they love to EDUCATE-give you lots of facts and technical details and options upon options upon options.
A good friend of mine says, “If I ask you the time, don’t give me the history of the watch!”
Now a good dentist will give you all the options, but a GREAT dentist will go one step further and strongly recommend ONE option. However, the only way they can ‘cut to the chase’ or melt all the options down to that one ultimate, best case scenario option is if you share your dental health goals and priorities with them. Lots of options, without a clear recommendation based on your priorities only leads to confusion for you and your dental team.
As a result, many patients end up choosing something that does not fit their “smile goals”, rather they make a choice based on cheapest or that which is covered by insurance. Then within a year they are back at the dentist office wondering why it didn’t work out!
Informed patients know that the BEST way to make the BEST decisions for their health is to find a dentist they can entrust with their goals and priorities. A dentist who will explain all the options but make a clear and concise recommendation based on what they have communicated with them. Really it is a winning team effort – and here in our office you are very much apart of that finish-line crossing team.
When I go to a favourite restaurant instead of letting them just hand me a menu for me to choose a meal, I ask oft time that they recommend something that they KNOW I will enjoy. If a server only recommended the most expensive item, or the daily special every time I would certainly lose trust in them to choose for me. You know they are recommending the same dish to every table they serve that day. Their recommendations are not based on what you like. The server that knows their stuff asks me about my tastes and my goal for that meal, that I will be paying for.
Our dentists know that you are free to make whatever choice you think is best for your health, but they also understand how confusing and overwhelming making that choice can be. What would help them is if they knew:
• What do you want for your teeth?
• What are you worried most about?
• What are your priorities?
Working alongside our team of Dentists I have heard them recommend completely different plans of action for the exact same situation for different patients, because they knew that the patients all had different priorities and desires.
I am completely convinced that our Dental team can assist you in reaching your smile goal. Options they know and options you both have got, but working together, knowing what is most important to you when it comes to your dental needs, means together we can select a treatment that best fits that smile goal. AND the best news yet is we know a number options that you may or may not know about for you to afford and reach that smile goal- sooner than later.
