{"id":1044,"date":"2019-10-15T13:54:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T13:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2019-10-15T13:54:34","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T13:54:34","slug":"the-information-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/the-information-highway\/","title":{"rendered":"THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Do you pay much\nattention to those cards in a hotel room asking you to reuse your towels? Many\npeople don\u2019t. But one researcher, Robert Cialdini, a University of Phoenix\nprofessor and the author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion<\/em>,\nfound a way to get guests to cooperate. He created a card saying that most\nguests who stayed \u201cin this room\u201d reused their towels. The response beat the\ntypical compliance rate by 33 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cialdini calls this the\n\u201cSocial Proof Effect,\u201d and it is a powerful force in our increasingly connected\nculture. It\u2019s not about peer pressure. It\u2019s about peer information, and how we\nbehave and make decisions based on the standards, expectations, and\nrecommendations of our social groups. It\u2019s why people share TV talk around the\nwater cooler, and it explains the popularity of social media like Facebook and\nTwitter, which make it easier than ever to be plugged into what our peers are\nthinking and doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many dental offices use\nsocial media as a way to connect with patients and bring discussions of dental\nissues into their cyber-world. It\u2019s not for everyone, but there are many\npatients who like and benefit from it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same thing goes for\n\u201cDr. Google\u201d. It is just another way to get information. Many people use Google\nto help self-diagnose. Any information helps make you more informed and aids in\nmaking decisions when it comes to choices. With many people it\u2019s reassuring\u2014a\nway of validating that the choice they\u2019re about to make has been endorsed by\npeople like them in similar circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More and more patients\nare coming into the office armed with information they have collected from\ntheir own web searches. Many times it is good information, which stimulates\ngood discussion. Other times the information brought to the table is misguided\ninformation, which can stimulate good discussion, but can also confuse people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One potential problem is\nthat patients often think that if something didn\u2019t work out for someone they\nknow, it is not right for their particular situation. For example, I have had\npatients come in and say, \u201cMy friend had a miserable time with a dental\nimplant. I don\u2019t want a dental implant.\u201d In this situation it takes a lot more\nnurturing and education to convince someone that a dental implant is right for\nthem. Sure, there are people who have problems, but there are many more people who\nhave had positive experiences and wouldn\u2019t want anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where spending\ntime one on one with patients is so important. TIME is the most precious gift a\nhealthcare provider can give to his or her patients.  Spending time to educate people allows them\nto make the best decisions for themselves. The trend is to spend less time with\npatients. There may be many reasons for this, but one definite one is the\npressure from insurance companies to control costs.  Who wins in that situation? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever way you get\nyour information, take the time to thoroughly discuss it with your healthcare\nprovider. Bring the information you find and incorporate it into the conversation.\nYour healthcare provider should be YOUR biggest advocate. It should be a\ntrusting and transparent relationship. If it doesn\u2019t seem that way, maybe you\nshould consider your alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. St. Clair maintains\na private dental practice in Rowley and Newburyport dedicated to health-centered\nfamily dentistry. If there are certain topics you would like to see written about\nor questions you have please email them to him at jpstclair@stclairdmd.com<\/a>.\nYou can view all previously written columns at www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you pay much attention to those cards in a hotel room asking you to reuse your towels? Many people don\u2019t. But one researcher, Robert Cialdini, a University of Phoenix professor and the author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, found a way to get guests to cooperate. He created a card saying that most guests who stayed \u201cin this room\u201d reused their towels. The response beat the typical compliance rate by 33 percent. Cialdini […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1054,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions\/1054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}