Your Patients Love You—But Are They EXCITED?

What do your patients think of you and your practice? Most dentists like to think that they enjoy a good approval rating with their patients, and they are probably right. The people who come to see you are likely quite satisfied with you—after all, that's why they are your patients and not someone else's. You can also probably point to a number of familiar faces who have been with you for many years, as further evidence of how devoted your patients are.

But is that enough?

How Excited Are Your Patients?

As I have said previously, patients have a point of reference for dentistry—and if that point of reference is an outdated context that is about routine hygiene and routine tooth-based dentistry, they are going to have a routine response. They may be genuinely satisfied with the work you do, and they may genuinely like you and your team, but how excited are they?

This is an important distinction. It's the difference between "meeting expectations," as they say on some school report cards, and introducing new eye-opening possibilities. It's the difference between "Yeah, my dentist is good, I have been going there for years," and, "My dentist is amazing—it's the best practice I have ever been in, and you absolutely must go there."

In order to generate that kind of from-the-heart feeling, you have to keep your patients excited about the growth and evolution in the practice – and about their own possibilities. Give them a personal tour of any new technological additions to the practice and explain what it means to them. Tell them about the continuing education you and the team are doing and how that changes your ability to deliver care at a higher level. Most of all, always diagnose and present with comprehensiveness and enthusiasm. Because if your patients sense that you are excited about what you can do for them, they will get excited too.

This is an approach to dentistry that goes beyond "meeting expectations." It's an approach that tells patients this is not your grandfather's dentistry. If you are clinician who is committed to providing care at today's highest standards, you can't help but be excited about what you can do for your patients. A big part of actually delivering that level of care is about getting them excited too.


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