Dental Success
I read a lot. I used to read a lot of fiction. I was a big James Patterson, Stuart Woods, Stephen King, and John Grisham fan. As I have advanced in years I have trended more towards the self-help genre. I enjoy learning and I always feel like I have plenty of room to improve. The deeper you dive into the realm of self help the more you hear about mindset. The gurus are always championing a growth mindset over a scarcity mindset. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here but let me address what this means. If you have a scarcity mindset your see the world as finite. Let’s use money as an example. A scarcity mindset sees money as a set amount. If there is only $100 available and I have $70 of it, then there is only $30 left for you. There isn’t enough to go around. The scarcity mindset is one of hoarding. You better hang on to every last penny because if you spend it, you won’t get it back. It’s gone. The growth mindset is one of abundance. There is more than enough for everyone. Again, let’s use the example of money. If there is $100 dollars available and I have $70 and you only have $30, it’s okay. There will be another $100 available tomorrow for you, or maybe even more. I know I’m oversimplifying this but that’s the takeaway I get every time I read about the growth mindset.
This mindset comes to some very naturally. To others, like myself, it requires effort to think this way. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in all the negative that bombards us every day. If you are in the habit of watching or listening to the news, it can be very difficult to put that negativity aside and focus on abundance. With respect to success, the growth mindset plays a large role. If you want to be successful, whatever that means to you, then you can’t have a mindset where nothing is available and resources are limited. This also extends to the etherial. If you feel like you have a limited amount of energy, you will naturally conserve it. If you feel like you have a limited amount of ideas, then you will conserve those as well. When we feel like there is an endless supply, we are not shy about “spending” that currency, whatever it is. You’re okay burning through ideas because you are going to have an infinite number of them. You’re okay spending energy at the gym because you’re replenish that energy and have more than enough to work and do whatever else needs to get done.
I have tried to translate this mindset into how I practice dentistry. I want to be a successful dentist and have successful practices. When I think about dentistry and what I determine success to be, it has three parts. I’m going to dismiss the clinical competency part of the equation. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it here anyway, if you are a total hack, there’s nothing your can do to succeed. You don’t have to be in the top 1% of clinicians to be successful, but you can’t be terrible. So, taking clinical competency out of the equation, the three pillars of dental success are the abundance mindset, the golden rule, and availability.
I’ll go back to the abundance mindset because I think this plays a huge role in dental success. First things first, I’m not so naive to think that just because you think something, it will happen. For example, you can feel the abundance of having 100 new patients a month. If you are in a situation where you are practicing on top of 13 other dentists in a square mile area, the reality of 100 new patients a month is wishful thinking. If you are the only game in town, you can feel pretty good about your abundance thinking. I’m using 2 extremes here, but I’m trying to illustrate a point. You have to put yourself into a situation where you can logically have an abundance mindset. You can be the most optimistic person in the world, but if your circumstances are such that your positivity is smashed by reality, then you need to change your reality. The abundance mindset carries over to treatment planning as well. There have been times in my career where I would treatment plan a bridge for someone and then almost hold my breath in hopes that they would schedule. I needed the production from that bridge. It felt like it was going to make or break my life financially if that person scheduled or not. I didn’t even think about them actually showing up with the money on their scheduled day, I was living or dying on whether they even scheduled or not. Since I have changed my reality and started practicing in an area where I can realistically practice with optimism and abundance, I don’t even check to see if someone scheduled or not. When I explain to them what they need I almost encourage them not to schedule. I let them know that they don’t have to decide anything that day and that they are more than welcome to take their treatment plan home and think about it. They are more than welcome to call with any questions and even come back and talk to me about it again if there was anything that wasn’t clear. I’m so far the opposite of the “hard sell” because them choosing not to schedule their bridge/implant/crown is not going to make a bit of difference on whether I can pay the bills and take home some money this month. While it’s great to train yourself to think abundantly, it also helps when you put yourself in a situation where it’s easier to think that way.
The second pillar of dental success is the golden rule. Simply treat patients the way you would want to be treated. Be kind. Be accommodating, within reason. We have all treated the patients who will wreck your schedule by showing up late, not wanting to pay, or just complaining about everything you do. Some patients you can’t accommodate, and they are the ones you should eliminate from your practice, but those patients are few and far between. Be reasonable with people. I used to have the stupid idea that I would never take a tooth out that could be saved. I wouldn’t even give the patient the option to have it extracted. How stupid is that? Maybe an extraction is what’s best for them financially? Who am I to tell people how to spend their money? Give everyone the option, the pros and cons of each option, and let them decide. Wouldn’t you want that if you were in the chair? See people on time. Respect their time. You want your time respected. Show patients the same courtesy. People don’t want to be talked down to, belittled, or treated less-than. I know this sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised.
The third pillar of successful dentistry is availability. I’m not talking about being open 24/7, nights and weekends for people. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen patients come to me from other offices because their previous dentist keep jerking them around. One of these practitioners was from an office that I bought. He had a lot of health challenges that would prevent him from working. The icing on the cake of him cancelling out his days last minute was that he would make the staff call all the patients a cancel on his behalf. Now, I don’t spend my time calling patients and rescheduling them, but I also have never asked my staff to continuously do it when I know the patents are going to be upset. Again, if you want patients to respect your time then you better be willing to respect theirs. Just be there when you say you’re going to be there. No one is telling you that you have to work 365 and can never take time off. What I am saying is to be responsible, plan ahead, and show up. You’d be surprised how many dentists can’t even get that part right.
Everyone wants to be successful, but few want to put in the effort to do so. If you’ve put yourself in a situation where you can logically have an abundance mindset, you treat people the way you would want to be treated, and you’re dependable (you show up when you say you’re going to), you can expect to be successful. These are the bare minimum requirements, along with clinical competency, in order to achieve financial success in dentistry. I’m going to make the case that you’re odds of putting yourself in this successful situation is greatly amplified if you chose to practice rurally.