Last week I discussed the importance of\ncommunication in any relationship, specifically the healthcare provider\/patient\nrelationship. Trust is mutually built as this relationship develops over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not enough time in the day.\u201d Have you\never used this excuse? I said this yesterday to someone. We all tend to waste a\nlot of time, or at least don\u2019t use the time we have as effectively as we could.\nYou would think that in our technology-filled world, time management would be\neasier. Some of this technology actually gets in the way by adding even more of\na time commitment to things that reduce interpersonal communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s an example. It\u2019s time to buy a new car.\nThere are many different car brands and within those brands are many models. No\nmatter what dealership you go to, they will gather a minute amount of information\nabout you, or maybe none at all, but guaranteed, they have a car on their\nshowroom floor that they tell you is the right car for you. They will spend a\ncountless amount of time talking about the many new features that their brand\nhas, and the options between different models. If the salesman worked for a\ndifferent brand, or if you went to a different dealership, you would hear the\nsame reasons why that brand is right for you. Their goal is to sell you a car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you went into a dental office and the dentist\nspent all their time talking about their array of technological gadgets and how\nthey were right for you, how would you feel? If you went to a different office\nand that dentist had a different set of gadgets, they have a bias as to why\ntheirs are right for you. You would feel like you\nwere trying to be \u201csold\u201d something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Branding draws us in. You may have a preconceived\nnotion that a particular make of car is what you \u201cneed\u201d, or see a dental\nadvertisement that attracts your attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It doesn\u2019t take much to realize that there are\nmany different brands of anything that would satisfy our needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether it is a car or teeth, there are often\ngaps between the \u201cseller\u201d and the \u201cbuyer\u201d. There is a gap between what we really<\/em> need and what we think<\/em> we need. There is another gap\nbetween what the dentist or salesman thinks we need and what we think we need.\nAnd, more specifically, there is often a serious gap between the value some\ndentists have, and the value they feel they can discuss with patients.\nSometimes we feel we don\u2019t have the time to discuss these things, and other\ntimes we are afraid we will scare you away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dentistry offers people so much that they want\nand need. Why don\u2019t people get it? What would permit someone to have this\nresource available, and fail to use it? What would cause them to misunderstand\nit so thoroughly that they fear it more than they fear the consequences of not\ncollaborating with a dentist?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dentists need to communicate facts and truths.\nThey need to convey expertise and enthusiasm. This goes back to the idea of\ntime I have mentioned so often in the past. Dentists need to spend time with patients,\nnot hard-sell with little information, and let the patient decide what the best\nline of treatment is for them. <\/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":" Last week I discussed the importance of communication in any relationship, specifically the healthcare provider\/patient relationship. Trust is mutually built as this relationship develops over time. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough time in the day.\u201d Have you ever used this excuse? I said this yesterday to someone. We all tend to waste a lot of time, or at least don\u2019t use the time we have as effectively as we could. You would think that in our technology-filled […]<\/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-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","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=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1096,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions\/1096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}