What is the foundation of your clinical dental philosophy? "What" "How" and "Why" do you do what you do? Is your philosophical foundation build incorrectly?

Leadership expert and author, Simon Sinek, wrote a book called, Start With Why. In this book he states that it is your right to find and amplify your passion so that you can love your job. He asserts, if you knew your "Why" that you could wake up more inspired and fulfilled by the work that you do!

Unfortunately, most people seem to go about this backwards! Most people start with WHAT they do, HOW they do it, and then WHY they do it! He feels the "Why" should be first. If you know why you are doing something the WHAT and the HOW naturally follow.  The natural flow of your treatment should center around 5 things:

1.  Treating Periodontal Disease – Would you restore a periodontally involved tooth only to have it fall out?
2.  Stop Decay – Would you do cosmetics on someone with untreated decay elsewhere that will affect the rest of the mouth?
3.  Alignment and Bite – Would you not check the bite and address alignment issues to prevent future problems with Periodontal Disease, TMD or broken teeth or restorations
4.  Joint Dysfunction – Would you not address the ways the TMD may be causing your patient pain?
5.  Cosmetics – This should be the last thing to concentrate on until the patient is orally healthy, yet some dentists who might practice in your town, will go about this all backwards.

What kind of dentistry do you do for your patients? Do you merely fix problems or get patients out of pain? Are you insurance driven with your diagnosis? Or, do you approach dentistry by doing a comprehensive diagnosis on each patient? Do you offer each patient the very best??

When you do your morning huddle do you merely read off procedures that are listed, or do you seize opportunities from that huddle? Do you see what family members that are due or overdue for hygiene appointments that can fill your schedule that day?

Do you find who else is due in the family for treatment? If there is unaccepted treatment from last time, WHY is that? Use the appointment in a productive way to ask the patient why they've not yet done the treatment. Was it money issues? Offer financing. Was it how you relayed the solution to their dental problem? Find a different way to explain and emphasize the procedures and WHY you suggested it.

Lastly, be invested in your patient's lives. What events have taken place that you can pass along to the team members who will be seeing them? Teething baby? Ask if you can give them teething tips. New baby? Take the opportunity to tell them about baby bottle decay. Are they going to get married? Tell them about whitening before their photos for a smile that will last a lifetime. It will make them feel like they are a priority and they will know WHY they chose you office as their dental office.

To learn more, watch the video below