Isn't It Wonderful When Patients Say "Yes"

One day I received a telephone call from Terry, a general dentist I’d known for years. He asked me to look at his practice and make some recommendations. I flew in and on the ride from the airport, we began to talk about case acceptance.

“I don’t have a problem with case acceptance,” Terry said. “I tell patients what they need and they generally take my recommendations.”

“You mean, you just recite a list of the work they need and they say ‘yes’?” I asked.

“That’s right,” Terry said as he smiled.

I wasn’t so sure. In fact, I figured I wasn’t getting the whole story, so I pressed the issue.

“How many cases do you sell that are over 3500 dollars?” I asked.

The smile disappeared from Terry’s face.

I decided to persist. “How many cases do you do that you restore half or more of the teeth?”

“Listen, those kinds of patients aren’t in my practice,” Terry said. “I live in a conservative area and people will do what their insurance pays for, and not much more.”

“Well, then, I’d say you do have a problem with case acceptance. Your problem starts where the insurance coverage ends.”

“I don’t do many cases much beyond what the insurance will pay for. It’s almost as if there is an invisible ceiling over my patients’ heads and they won’t break through it, no matter how much they need the work. The way I see it, dental insurance companies are persuading the patients not to go ahead with big cases,” Terry concluded.

Terry is “lucky.” He’s found someone to blame for his case acceptance problems—the insurance companies. Terry and thousands of dentists just like him can now enjoy gigantic gripe sessions about insurance companies. Misery loves company. If you want to stay in that mode, this book is not for you. If you want to change your attitudes and look at a new approach to case acceptance, stick with me, because you can learn what you need to know here.

All our lives we’ve been told: “Don’t try to sell it ‘til you get it on the shelf.” Too many of us spend our careers “getting it on the shelf,” so to speak. But our shelves are full. We know how to fix teeth. What we need today is information about “taking it off the shelf” by increasing acceptance for complete dentistry.

Robert’s story is different from Terry’s, but it has the same frustrating ending. Robert is a general dentist who has been to the mountaintop of continuing education. He has studied under all of the modern masters of our profession and has soaked up the philosophy that “Quality dentistry sells itself.”

“I’ve tried to limit my practice to advanced restorative and cosmetic dentistry,” Robert told me. “I pictured myself sitting at the chair doing nothing but comprehensive care, but it hasn’t happened and I’m beginning to think it never will. I must be doing something wrong.”

Unlike Terry, Robert blames himself for his case acceptance problems. He sees his inability to sell complete care as a personal failure and logically believes the teachers are right, and their way is the right way. He’s not getting the results his teachers promised, so he believes that must be because he’s not practicing the “quality dentistry” the teachers proposed. Robert’s self-esteem has crashed, and so has his practice.