Monday, February 20, 2012

Dental Education

"Somebody Doesn't have a case of the Mondays"

That'd be me I'm in the office working my tail off as an assistant I worked with years ago used to say.

I met a new patient today who had called our office about a specific item he had heard of that is in essence a flexible partial denture. He heard about our practice online and had viewed one of our patient testimonials and mentioned it when we met. As he is employed in the audio-video-entertainment field, his compliment on our interview was a pleasant surprise.

This man, like many people, seemed to have never had someone sit and talk with him about his smile and his dental health. One of the things I often say is "your teeth don't match you" this is often when I see a person who is well dressed, cares for themselves in many ways but has let their teeth go. In surveys, people say they see our smiles before they see our eyes, outfit, purse, car or home or whatever other status symbol is currently popular in society. I believe more often than not this is merely because they have never been educated.

I do not mean scolded. I do not mean lectured. I mean truly taught via a back and forth dialogue about what is really going on in all of our mouths. Fear often is the main reasons people do not visit dental offices, financial obligations can be as well. But most often people, especially in America, people often find ways to get what they want. How many people have iphones in this "economic downturn"?

I have never been in this mans company when he visited the dentist in the past, or what the conversations were like. But I do know he left here today knowing our philosophy of care, that if he came with us on this journey we would restore not only his smile but his dental health overall. As he makes us his dental home his dental I.Q. will increase drastically and so will his smile.

As far as music it seems to be a lot of classic 70's rock today. Up front is a little heavier tunes with some Doors and Rolling Stones and in our operatories a lot of Motown and Creedence, Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. But then there is always some Fleetwood Mac or Stevie Nicks playing somewhere in this office...

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