Clarity in Communication (Dental Confidence and Connection Course)

Let's talk a little bit about simplicity and clarity. One issue that I commonly come across as I'm working with coaching, teaching, mentoring, training doctors, dentists who have less experience than myself is the tendency to share too much when it comes to clinical recommendations and treatment. So there's a spectrum there. And ultimately what we have to do is to be cautious and cautious to avoid information overload as it comes to discussing what a procedure is or why a patient wants this or that. Now the opposite is also true. Oftentimes we tend to tell someone that they need something and that's it, there's no discussion about why. So as you're considering what's happening here in a situation like this where you have to relay information, and we're trying to balance the amount of information we share with the individual, we have to first have made a good solid connection with them so that we can check in with them. We can double-click. Hey, tell me what questions you have so far. What is it that you're here to accomplish? What are your goals for this life today? Hopefully we've gleaned and gathered some more information about what they are here for and what they expect from this. And at that point we can then continue to clarify and continue to adjust what we see and how we see it so that we can then tailor the conversation to this unique individual that we're meeting with or having a conversation with or communicating and collaborating with in a way that gives them the data, the information that they need to make an informed decision. I find, again, that we oftentimes are too verbose. We chat too much about this in here. So I would suggest when talking to the patient about the procedure, for instance, or dental implant, for instance, these procedures tend to allow us to flex our knowledge database. You know, I went to dental school and I have all this didactic knowledge. Let me share that with you. And I'm not saying that we're doing that intentionally, you know, with an eye to putting ourselves on a pedestal, but we oftentimes subconsciously do this. So here's the question. What information is the patient reading? And what am I obligated to share to help them understand what the problem is, what the consequence of that problem is, and then what the solution to the problem is? We don't necessarily need to go into all of the details, all of the nuts and bolts, every procedural step of discussing the work, you know, whether we're using a, you know, a crown-down technique or a, you know, a thermophil obturator or, you know, some sort of a biospheric sealer, or whether there needs to be a retreat down the road, or let's talk about internal anatomy, or dental implants, let's talk about torque on the, you know, on the restorative screw, or the implant engagement, the types of bone. We oftentimes don't need to discuss that, and the less nitty-gritty detail that we provide for our patients oftentimes allows them more understanding of the procedure. For instance, if I were to talk to a patient about tooth number three that has a dental abscess, which if left untreated will probably continue to swell, the abscess will create some potential long-term implications like substantial bone loss. Ultimately, we may get to the point where that tooth is not fixable, and worse, that infection can actually spread throughout the body, and those bacteria can be pretty damaging. I don't necessarily need to get into the, you know, we're going to use a file or whatever, but usually the discussion that I'll have with a patient, unless they ask, and I'm happy to give them as much data as they want, is, you know, the process of going up and down, we probably don't care. Ultimately, it'll numb your tooth, I'll clean out, disinfect, and fill the inside of the tooth, the part that we call the root canal, and then we'll seal it up, and usually the body does a great job of healing on its own, and once the root canal's done, you need to complete a transplant because it kind of becomes a little brittle. Long-term, I've done tens of thousands of these root canals, and these root canals do very, very well. Now, what questions do you have? How can I help you understand the procedure better? So, very simple, concise, extensive, detailed, lagging discussion. Oftentimes, it's hard. So, simpler is better. You know, like, what was it, Michael Scott from The Office would say, keep it simple, stupid, or keep it stupid, simple. You know, making play on the phrase that I don't remember. Simplicity is better. You know, if a patient asks to get an engineer or, you know, another physician or, you know, someone else who's got all this advanced knowledge of training and they want the detail, that's wonderful. Share as much as they're interested in learning. However, we want to be careful that we don't over-reward or overload patients with detail. So, clarity and simplicity is better. I encourage you to consider when you have a conversation with a patient about a particular procedure, what is it that you do well in that conversation? What are you sharing that the patients seem to grab onto, you know, the eyes may open and, oh, you know, recognition. And then what are some things that you tend to say or do that allow kind of a glazing over of the patients during this conversation? In my experience, again, less is oftentimes more and allowing time, time after a question or a comment for that patient to internalize and consider when you can send them is critical. That's when you empower a patient.