Have you given any thought to....?



 Often young dentists are afraid of treatment planning 'ideal' dentistry because they are afraid their patients will reject more expensive recommendations. Obviously 'upselling' dentistry is not appropriate, but informing patients of possible treatment plans that are most ideal is a dentist's responsibility. Of course it has to be presented in a non judgmental manner.. Just the facts... .Often patients have a number of options that will work to some extent and we make sure we spend the needed time to explain a few options, if the patient needs them.

If we present the most ideal treatment plan and it is accepted by our patients, then further discussion is not needed, but if our ideal is not immediately accepted, then a further discussion of other options will be valuable.

Some problems are not necessarily immediately fixed and probably could be delayed for a year or two. This is the point of this post. When patients are seen in my practice on recall visits, I go over their chart to review any recommendations that were not patient approved at the last visi since often a patient will reply that they would like to think about them.

Recall is a good time to review prior recommendations. A good way to start a conversation is by saying "Have you given any thought to "xxxxxxxxx". The patients response will invariably help us as their dentist gauge if they have an interest in either getting more information or are now ready to move forward to our prior presented treatment plan.



from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2025/09/have-you-given-any-thought-to.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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