Confidence in Dentistry?!? (Dental Confidence and Connection Course)

Let's talk a little bit about confidence. How many of us as dentists have definitely developed the clinical diagnostic, didactic learning skills and the knowledge and information we need to execute, diagnose and deliver a dentistry unit in a high quality way. But for many of us, we don't feel confident especially coming straight out of dental school. We just don't have the confidence that we need to allow us to communicate with our patients in a way that allows them to perceive that we know what we're doing. In my experience, within the first minute or so of having a conversation with a patient, they can perceive two things. They're looking for two things. Number one, can they trust us? Number two, are we competent to be able to execute and do what we're talking about? Once that determination is made by a patient, it's easier for them to decide whether or not they want to receive more of the treatment or whether they're not interested or they may not come back to see me again tomorrow. Developing confidence is something that comes natural to many people. For many of us introverts, it's not necessarily a you know, it naturally springs out of us. We have to develop it and foster it. I want to be very clear. I don't want you to think about becoming artificial or robotic in any way. I'd like you to consider as we're going through these lessons how you can become a more confident version of who you are. Utilizing your own personal individual experiences, your own personal individual unique learning knowledge and experience and training and whatnot so that you can, again, be a good, authentic, and genuine version of you. So let's talk a little bit about dental confidence. A lot of times we assume that I need to have done 10,000 crown procedures or 28 million root canals to be able to confidently say yes I can do that, right? Or to be able to say this is what you need as a patient to do this. That's not necessarily true. Now we definitely need the hands-on clinical experience to be able to do this but we don't need to have done a certain number if we're actually competent. We can rely on other people's experience. Look at all the scientific studies that are out there. Look at those mentors that have taught and trained and led and coached and guided us in the past and rely on them to help us prescribe and diagnose the recommended treatment for that patient. Again, I'm not suggesting that you fake it until you make it. I'm suggesting that you rely on tried and true data that's valuable coupled with appropriate clinical experience and training. So, again, I don't have to have done 10,000 crowns to be able to prescribe one appropriately to a patient. We can have that confidence without having practiced for 20 years like some of us have. You can come out of dental school a week and have a good conversation with a patient about what they need and why they need it to prescribe it in a way that they're comfortable moving forward, or at least they're comfortable with the need for the prescribed treatment so that you don't have to have some sort of a high no-show rate because the patient's not going to know what they're talking about. So, confidence is critical. A, we have to understand what we're doing, B, why we're doing it, and then C, how to execute it appropriately, how to deliver that dentistry appropriately. Again, going back to what I said a moment ago, within the first minute or two, the patients can understand two things. Number one, can they trust us? It's an immediate and kind of an instinctual response. Can I trust someone based on the interactions with them? And number two, am I competent to do what I'm doing? As we approach these interactions, especially with individuals who are new to our dental practice, it's really, really critical that we help patients to understand A, they can trust us, and B, we are competent in what we're doing. And those two things together will help yield confidence. The patients will have confidence in us which allows them then to be able to make that choice. There are a series of other items we'll talk about here in a moment. They'll be able to make that choice to move forward. But if they don't have any confidence in us, they don't feel like we're competent or they can't trust us, it's very difficult to move forward with treatment unless they're in the hospital so it's not necessarily very often. So think about that confidence. How can you genuinely develop and not exude necessarily but how you can show that individual as you're communicating with them and you have confidence, competence or trust, or confidence in what you're doing. Alright.