The following is a guest post by Elliot Pearson. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

Communication may not seem that important to a dentist whose work day is filled with countless appointments, but it is a big deal for patients. The difference between having a loyal patient and losing said patient may rest on good communication.

Although the first factors that a patient may consider when choosing a dentist is their competence and cost of services, the secondary aspect that they consider is the overall experience of working with that dentist. Naturally, all dentists who have established a stable practice are considered competent enough. At the same time, competition among dentists has been quite rigid so their price ranges may not differ substantially. So what tips the scale is often the dentist’s ability to establish rapport with his or her patients which comes with good communication skills.

There are so many opportunities for a dentist to start communicating with a patient and one must take advantage of all these chances.

Before the Visit

If you think about it, the first time that a dentist will be able to talk to a patient is way before the patient even steps into the dental clinic or even meets the dentist face-to-face. Dentists communicate to potential patients with the help of their marketing efforts. For this reason, marketing efforts should be designed so that patients feel that the dentist isn’t just reaching out to them because they are seen as customers but because the dentist really intends to take good care of their teeth.

Taking Records

The next time that the dentist communicates with the patient is when he or she actually steps into the dental clinic and the front office personnel goes on to take his records. As an extension of the dentist, front office personnel should know the rationale for why they must collect specific information from their patients. Not only will patients feel a lot better about answering questions when they know why the information is relevant to their treatment but they’ll also develop confidence in the clinic.

Examination

The dentist will finally see the patient face-to-face while doing exams. Most of the time, dentists talk in code because then it’s easier for the assistant to chart the results down. But you also have the patient inside the room and it’s crucial that he or she knows the current state of his or her teeth. So make sure to use language that the patient will understand. At the same time, if you find something distressing after the patient’s exam, make sure to inject a bit of emotion in your conversation using phrases like “I’m concerned” or “I’m afraid”. This will make your patient understand the severity of the problem and feel more comfortable at the same time. Lastly, take pictures and show them to the patient so that he or she knows exactly what you’re referring to with the help of images.

Your Thoughts

Please share your patient communications tips in a comment below.

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