In dentistry, patients who fail to go ahead with and fail to complete their necessary diagnosed treatment do so for a number of reasons.
And one of those reasons is money.
Money is not THE ONLY reason.
But money and affordability is a significant and valid reason, and as a valid reason, it cannot be ignored.
There will always be patients who will want to have their dental treatment done, but cannot see a way of paying for that treatment.
Helping these patients to be able to have this necessary treatment done now rather than later or never, is one of the very important duties our dental practices has to do.
When our patients delay or postpone their treatment, for whatever reason, the one thing that is for certain is that their dental conditions will only worsen because of that delay.
Time is their enemy.
Necessary dentistry cannot be viewed in the same way as tidying up the spare room or the garage… our patients cannot simply close the door and return at some undetermined point of time in the future expecting things to be exactly how they left them.
As time goes by, cavities get bigger, pockets become deeper, tartar continues to build up, and alveolar bone recedes…
It’s a fact of life.
As a dentist, you need to be asking yourself these questions:
How many of your patients do not go ahead with treatment because those patients believe they cannot afford the treatment and care?
When your patients do not go ahead with the treatment they need, how much production and profit is walking out of your dental practice front door because these patients believe their treatment and care is unaffordable to them?
Does your practice offer all your patients a variety of payment choices and options?
Are your patients aware of the payment choices that are available to them out there in the community?
The thing is this:
If you believe your treatment plan for your patient is what is best for that patient, and is what they need doing NOW to improve their dental health, then it is YOUR DUTY to do everything you possibly can to help your patient have that necessary treatment done as soon as possible, without delay.
You owe it to your patients to give them every OPPORTUNITY to find an affordable way to pay for the dentistry they are needing.
Every one of your patients MUST be given every opportunity to learn about the various ways available to them to help them pay for their dental treatment.
And once they know and understand their financial options and choices, it gives your patient the choice of being able to go ahead with their treatment.
Patients know that GOOD DENTISTRY costs money.
It’s your duty to help your patients work out the best way for them to be able receive the dentistry they need.
When you provide your patients with more options for them to choose from regarding payment for their treatment, what you will find is that you will have more patients accepting and beginning treatment, rather than delaying or postponing the care that they are needing.
And that’s a WIN-WIN for all.
*****
Need your phones monitored?
Are you concerned about the number of calls that are not being answered as best they can be?
You need Call Tracking Excellence.
For the cost of a less than one cleaning per week, you could have your phones being answered much much better….
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
As we move towards the New Year, the Number One skill we need to be focussing on in our dental practice is helping our valued patients to go ahead with all of the necessary dentistry that we diagnose and treatment plan for them.
When our patients delay or postpone their treatment, for whatever reason, the one thing that is for certain is that their dental condition will only worsen because of that delay.
Time is the enemy.
Necessary dentistry cannot be viewed in the same way as tidying up the spare room or the garage… we cannot simply close the door and return at some undetermined time in the future expecting things to be exactly how we left them.
As time goes by, cavities get bigger, pockets become deeper, tartar continues to build up, and alveolar bone recedes…
It’s a fact of life.
In dentistry, patients who fail to go ahead and fail to complete their necessary diagnosed treatment do so for a number of reasons:
They don’t understand what they need to have done
They don’t understand what will happen if they fail to have their dental treatment done NOW.
They do not see the value in what they will need to pay for the treatment required and the benefits of having that treatment.
They want to have their treatment, but cannot see a way of paying for that treatment
The first three points here can be answered simply with the question:
“You don’t want to lose this tooth, do you?”
[Or permutations of the above.]
The consequences of tooth loss [be it one tooth, several teeth, or all remaining teeth] can be logically explained to the majority of the sensible population.
There does exist out there though, a small number of people whose brains reject logic based on firmly entrenched LIMITING BELIEFS….
These people will identify themselves by saying things such as:
“It’s only a tooth.”
“Nobody will see it”
“My mother/father/relative/friend had all their teeth pulled out and it never affected them…”
When we meet these people we must graciously move to the side to allow them to pass by and be on their way without them inflicting mental anguish upon us that may scar us permanently from the encounter.
It is also our moral duty to do whatever we can to protect our team members from these people…
We cannot be all things to all people.
There will always be plenty of people turning up to your dental practice who want you to save their teeth, and restore their smiles, and are willing to replace the behaviours and the habits of their past that resulted in their [present] dental state.
These are the patients you are looking to help.
Do not try to WISH good dentistry upon the whole population.
Some will want your help. Some won’t….
*****
Need your phones monitored?
Are you concerned about the number of calls that are not being answered as best they can be?
You need Call Tracking Excellence.
For the cost of a less than one cleaning per week, you could have your phones being answered much much better….
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
A Perth [W.A.] dentist has been sentenced to two months immediate jail for breaching COVID-19 quarantine requirements and treating 41 patients despite knowing the health risk posed by the virus.
Dentist Natalia Nairn flew back to Perth from Canberra on June 16 via Sydney. She left home on seven or eight occasions when she should have been in Self-Isolation to treat clients. The magistrate dismissed Dr. Nairn’s argument that she was “feeling fine”
During sentencing in the Joondalup Magistrates Court, Magistrate Matthew Walton told Dr. Nairn her offending constituted a “contemptible disregard” for the rules.
Magistrate Walton said Dr. Nairn could have been responsible for spreading the virus through the community, and that she posed a significant risk to the health and safety of West Australians.
Nairn flew back to Perth from Canberra on June 16 via Sydney and was supposed to quarantine at home for two weeks. But the court heard on seven or eight occasions, she left her home to work at a dental clinic and treated 41 patients. She even revisited the dental clinic again after police tried to contact her at her home about her then alleged breach.
Dr. Nairn was charged with eight offences of failing to comply with a direction under the Emergency Management Act, and pleaded guilty on October 21.
Magistrate Walton said Nairn’s view she did not pose a risk because she was “feeling fine” was “patently ridiculous” and “staggeringly naive or at the very least irrelevant”.
Magistrate Walton went on to say that Dr. Nairn knew the risks of her action and in fact wore PPE while treating patients.
“She took those measures to fundamentally protect herself,” he said.
Magistrate Walton described the crimes as deliberate and at the “upper range of seriousness”, and said she risked potentially freshly introducing COVID-19 into the state, through 41 patients who could have then spread it through their own networks and contacts.
Magistrate Walton took into consideration Dr. Nairn’s remorse, early guilty plea and the fact she may be deregistered as a dentist.
But he said the offence warranted a jail term.
Nairn was sentenced to two months in prison, as well as another five months suspended for a period of eight months.
Comments from within the profession:
“It’s hard to be sympathetic. Looks like she was allowed to self-quarantine having come from interstate. Breaking the “honour system” really is poor form.. It would be bad enough just wandering around the community, but getting up close and personal with patients. That really is bad form.”
“Media circus made it much worse. But it was fairly blatant disregard for the law. Possibly her profession would have made the outcome worse for her as well, as she should have known better. Would be unfair to be stopped earning a livelihood with what is clearly just bad judgement and bad timing.”
“Media piled on because the stupidity/selfishness is astounding for a health care professional.Extremely heavy-handed approach. A stiff fine and closure for a short period but a jail sentence?”
“Jail is way too harsh. A fine is understandable. Are they jailing everyone else who didn’t quarantine?”
“Jail time is just way too harsh. Let’s drop the “she put her patients at risk” nonsense. She breached WA law. I get that. Perhaps a fine. She does not deserve trial by media and jail. You can drive around in a car drunk and you don’t go to jail.”
“Jail time is quite harsh, but she has brought the profession into disrepute. We have an additional responsibility to act with the highest level of professionalism, particularly when it comes to breaches of public health policy. We know that any improper act that reaches the media will always mention our profession without fail. More so than any other professions. A heavy fine would have sufficed.”
“She didn’t have COVID. She never tested positive. She didn’t spread the disease or infect a single person. In a state where there’s very few cases. Goes to jail…. what has this world come to??”
“Harsh punishment given the result, perfect deterrent to dentists though?”
My take on this:
The dental profession is easy media cannon fodder. And Dr. Nairn is an unwitting victim of this media thirst.
But as I’ve always said:
“No matter how difficult things are out there in the economy and in society in general, nobody, and I mean nobody out there, gives a rats if a dentist is doing it tough.”
As they say in the classics:
“Do the crime. Do the time.”
In Dr. Nairn’s case the punishment does appear to be quite harsh. I’m in agreement with those who say a fine would have sufficed.
*****
Online Workshop: Dr David Moffet and Jayne Bandy:
“How To Easily Run, Maintain And Grow The Ultimate Dental Practice In 2021”
If you’re sick and tired of drilling all day long, and not having anything close to what you deserve, to show for it… or if you’ve ever wondered, “What can successful dentists POSSIBLY know, that I don’t?”… then register for this unique online ZOOM workshop Saturday November 21, 2020
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
In Australia, the COVID-19 Pandemic has created some fascinating situations.
Only this month, the Australian State of Queensland has chosen to relax the closure of its borders to tourists and visitors and population travelling into and out of Queensland from other states.
These previous STRICT regulations had meant that up until just recently, visitors to Queensland had needed to hotel quarantine for fourteen days, at their own expense, before being allowed to freely move around in the community, in Queensland.
Similarly, under those previous regulations, residents of Queensland who left the state and then returned home, also were required to hotel quarantine for fourteen days.
These laws were in place for a significant amount of time, but were relaxed at the start of this month [November], coincidentally two days after a State Government election was held in Queensland and the incumbent government was returned.
Anyway, what this meant in my family was that my wife had not seen her elderly mother who lives in Queensland since New Years Day, some ten and a half months earlier.
And so, with the Queensland Government now permitting travel for Queenslanders into and out of CERTAIN PARTS of Australia [not Sydney or Melbourne], my wife arranged for her mother to fly down and visit us for a week.
Qantas Flights were booked by my wife, for her mother.
However, a handful of days prior to travel, Qantas cancelled the flights, and reallocated my mother-in-law to their Budget carrier Jetstar.
Mistake Number 1.
Dear Qantas:
“If my wife had wanted to ship her mother by your budget carrier, she would have organised a Jetstar booking in the first place.”
There is a reason why people choose not to fly Jetstar.
Actually, there are MANY REASONS why people avoid Jetstar…..
When my mother-in-law arrived at Coolangatta Airport, the Jetstar computer there did not have her booked on the flight she had been reassigned to.
What transpired was a phone call from my mother-in-law to her daughter, who then needed a second phone to simultaneously call Qantas “Customer Service” and be told that the Jetstar computer system at the airport needed to be refreshed or updated and the booking would then magically appear at the Coolangatta Jetstar check-in.
Why this action needed to be performed at the last minute is concerning…
Anyway, all good news, my mother-in-law was able to board her flight.
Mistake Number 2.
Once on board, my mother-in-law found herself seated next to two adult male travellers, who she had never met. Yet immediately around her [according to reports], were at least twelve vacant seats.
With all the talk about maintaining SAFE SOCIAL DISTANCING PROTOCOLS as being important for limiting the spread of Coronavirus, my mother-in-law was concerned for her health. [Announcements about social distancing had been made both on board the flight before take-off as well as inside the Airport terminal].
Because of this awkward seat allocation, and before take-off, my mother-in-law asked a male flight attendant whether she could relocate herself to one of the nearby vacant seats, once the plane had taken off. The flight attendant told her this would be ok.
My mother-in-law explained that the men seated beside her were unknown to her, to which the male flight attendant had answered:
“Oh, I thought you must have known them as you were seated beside them.”
How did the Jetstar “system” seat an elderly female passenger beside two young adult male passengers when there were a number of significantly safer places in this cabin for her to be seated?
Mistake Number 3.
Once the plane was in the air, and it was safe to do so, when my mother-in-law did relocate, a female flight attendant arrived at her seat and ordered her back to her original seat, stating to my mother-in-law in a bullying and humiliating tone:
“You must return to your original seat. Or I will have to have someone come and remove you from this seat. And then I will have to fill in a ton of paperwork if you don’t ….”
It appeared that no amount of reasoning would persuade this female crew member to change her mind, despite the fact that there had been a mistake in seating allocation, and despite the fact that a safer seat was available.
When this encounter was shared on Social Media…
When my wife shared this encounter on social media, to a man, all but one of the people who commented suggested that my wife and her mother should report this female flight attendant.
They also [all but one] commented that when working in such a PUBLIC Customer Service role, there is NO EXCUSE for this type of rudeness towards a paying customer.
Only one person offered a counter-opinion, suggesting that the female crew member was “having a bad day” and was possibly stressed from the whole effect of pay cuts etc as a result of the pandemic.
Mistake Number 4.
“Having a bad day” is no reason or justification for rudeness of any level, towards customers.
Especially in a customer service role like an airline flight attendant.
Trying to explain or justify someone’s poor behaviour in this manner is stupid and ridiculous.
The Lesson For Today:
If you are employed in a customer service role, and you are paid to deliver service, then that is indeed what you need to be doing.
Whether it is on an aeroplane, at a dental practice or doctor’s surgery, on a telephone, or somewhere else totally different, if you choose to take the “service” out of the CUSTOMER SERVICE in your business, you’re actually helping to take the “customers” out of your business, and give them to your competitors’ businesses.
*****
Online Workshop: Dr David Moffet and Jayne Bandy:
“How To Easily Run, Maintain And Grow The Ultimate Dental Practice In 2021”
If you’re sick and tired of drilling all day long, and not having anything close to what you deserve, to show for it… or if you’ve ever wondered, “What can successful dentists POSSIBLY know, that I don’t?”… then register for this unique online ZOOM workshop Saturday November 21, 2020
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
When you say that someone talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk, you are saying that that person’s actions are incongruous with what they are saying.
People need to support what they say with their actions, otherwise their talk is just fluff.
It’s meaningless.
It’s pure hypocrisy.
Years ago there was an infamous Mastercard advertisement on television spruiking the benefits of one bank’s Mastercard because that bank [“Which bank?”] offered a Mastercard with a fifty-five day interest free period for cardholders.
The actor in the advertisement was easily recognisable, because the advertisement was played on televisions for a very long period of time.
The actor was so recognisable that one day, he was spotted in line in ANOTHER BANK branch [not “Which bank?”], lining up like you and I would to make a teller transaction [as we all did back in the day…]
Oops. Wrong bank…
A case of do as I say, not do as I do.
A friend of mine who speaks was once phoned by a rather agitated speaker friend of his because the agitated speaker was upset that my friend had accidentally scheduled a public event on the same day that the agitated speaker had also scheduled himself to speak.
And the agitated speaker felt that my friend needed to move his engagement to another date, because the two of them speaking on the same date would have an adverse effect on ticket sales.
The fact that the two speakers were speaking in different capital cities of different states some nine hundred miles apart didn’t deter the agitated speaker from driving home his jaundiced message.
Although my friend didn’t agree with the argument presented by his agitated friend, my friend moved the date of his event to another day in an effort to hold the peace.
Fast forward to 2020 and the year of COVID-19 and it seems that the agitated speaker has forgotten his uncalled for and unnecessary anxiety from the past and has gone and scheduled an online event on a date that clashed exactly not only with an online event my friend had scheduled, but also other events that other speakers in that field were doing.
How coincidental?
Or just convenient memory loss?
In business, you need to be seen to be walking the walk that reflects the talk that you talk.
It’s been said that your doctor should be a picture of health, as opposed to a looking like a fatality waiting to happen.
“Do as I do, AND as I say…”.
What about you?
Is that the world that you work in?
Some who don’t walk the walk just live their lives from one lie to the next to the next.
And that’s fine for them.
Eventually karma catches up with them.
In the meantime, the world is too large, and life is too short, to be entertaining charlatans and crooks…
There is no need to employ them, do business with them, or have them as your customers.
Life is way too short.
*****
Online Workshop: Dr David Moffet and Jayne Bandy:
“How To Easily Run, Maintain And Grow The Ultimate Dental Practice In 2021”
If you’re sick and tired of drilling all day long, and not having anything close to what you deserve, to show for it… or if you’ve ever wondered, “What can successful dentists POSSIBLY know, that I don’t?”… then register for this unique online ZOOM workshop Saturday November 21, 2020
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order
You can order your copy here: 
You can order your copy here: 
