Why 'Bad' Patients Are Actually Good Patients

You will always have some patients who choose to accept nothing more than having you "fix" their most immediate care concerns.

But at the same time you'd be surprised how many will commit to ideal care – or at least a higher level of care – if you take the time to work on your value creation skills and present to them in a way that really inspires their imagination and gets them thinking about what can be. It's not about attracting the right kind of patient who is predisposed toward accepting high-level dentistry.

Most of those so-called "quality" patients already have a long history of accepting a high standard of dental care, so your improvements with them are usually going to be incremental. If you really want to elevate your game, you need to connect with those patients who don't have a history of valuing dentistry, because that's where the real gains are made. This is where you can change lives. In this sense, some of your "worst" patients can end up being your best patients.

You don't have to go to great lengths to find these people. In fact, if between you and your hygiene team you're seeing about 20 patients a day, I can almost guarantee that at least two have the means and the inclination to embrace a higher standard of dentistry – if you work on closing their value gap.

The question is, can you identify those patients? Are you holding yourself accountable to reach out to them and give them the opportunity to enjoy ideal dental health, regardless of your preconceptions about what they may accept? Remember, they may not say yes to everything today, but you owe it to them – and to yourself – to begin the education process. Many patients come around slowly, but they do come around if the message of value is consistently reinforced.