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customer, or patient is ready and willing to pay big dollars out-of-pocket. Granted, not every “interaction” must be an office visit. Perhaps their first “positive interaction” is an excellent first experience with your team member booking the new patient exam. We’re focusing on your typical “bread and butter” new patient. Nothing broken, no abscesses. No pain. This is the asymptomatic patient with a mouth full of needed care but NO CLUE there’s even a single problem. During the new patient exam, you’re still five positive interactions shy of being able to consistently get a positive response to recommendations for costly extensive care. What do they want (perhaps even expect ) to hear? “Everything’s just fine! See you in six months.” No, that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t recommend any care to your brand-new asymptomatic patients. But there are limits to what they’ll accept. If you routinely exceed those limits, you’ll dramatically reduce the number of new patients who stay and become patients for life. And no, it’s neither ethical nor credible to tell them everything’s just fine, and then try to convince them otherwise six months or a year down the road. But there is a way you can avoid telling them about everything you see and actually help them accept all of your recommendations for care down the road. WHAT’S THE MISSING INGREDIENT WITH NEW PATIENTS? WHY IS IT MORE LIKELY THAT A RECALL PATIENT WILL ACCEPT CARE? The (hopefully) obvious answer is relationship. Over time, we build a relationship with our patients. With relationship comes trust. When patients trust us, they are far more likely to stay with us and accept recommendations for care. The asymptomatic patient must rely solely upon trust to make the decision to accept care to correct problems they were entirely unaware of. So, what can (should) your treatment plan be for the asymptomatic new patient in order to ensure you retain them long enough to actually have the opportunity to render the care you believe they need? No, I’m not recommending you hurt your longer-term existing patients! But you do have some deposits in the forgiveness bank with patients you’ve been treating for years. Mr. Jones has been coming to you for five years. You’ve done a couple of root canals, a few crowns, and several fillings. He’s always been happy with you, your care, and your practice. He presents today for an onlay on tooth #30. You give him a mandibular block and (unfortunately) hit something just right (or wrong) and he startles in pain from the injection. Of course, you apologize and take great care to ensure his comfort for the remainder of the visit. He’s not leaving your practice for one bad block. Contrast this with your brand-new patient, Mrs. Smith, who presents for an MOD composite on #19. The block seemed to go just fine and the patient seemed comfortable … until your bur plunged deep down into dentin … at which point Mrs. Smith literally jumped out of your chair. She wasn’t profoundly numb. Given that this was her first experience with you as her doctor, there’s a fair chance her first experience with you may also be her last. 3 RULES TO ENSURE MAXIMUM RETENTION OF ASYMPTOMATIC NEW PATIENTS 1. Don’t Hurt ‘Em!
Bottom line … you must take extra care to ensure the 100 percent absolute comfort of new patients in your practice.
2. Don’t Take Much of Their Money.
It’s fine to plan and perform a few simple fillings, perio phase I if needed … perhaps even whitening, if they ask. There is no exact number, but if your new asymptomatic patient is asked to pay $1,000 or more out-of- pocket, in my opinion, it’s too much. Remember that we’re speaking specifically of a new patient who presents to your practice with the assumption that “Everything’s okay … I just need a cleaning and checkup.” The lower you keep the out-of-pocket, the better, with $999 being about the upper limit. This rule goes hand in hand with Rule 2 above. If your new asymptomatic patient comes in for an exam, a prophy, a few fillings, and even perio phase I, that’s right around the upper limit of the time commitment I’d ask them to make. The fewer visits, the better. If you’ve been treatment planning and recommending everything you see on patients with whom you have yet to build relationship and trust … follow these three rules and watch your new patient retention measurably improve starting tomorrow. If you were to perform your exam and give them the impression that this (short little treatment plan) was the only needed care, it would not be ethical. Furthermore, trying to convince them six months or a year down the road of the need for much more expensive care would not be credible. So how can you maximize new (asymptomatic) patient retention and do so ethically and remain credible in your new patients’ eyes? It’s actually quite simple. It’s all in what you say and when you say it. Consider their cleaning, perio phase I if needed, small fillings, and whitening if desired as their “phase I treatment plan.” But it’s critical that you not mention those words to the patient until the right time. If you were to sit down at the start of your new patient exam and say, “Hi Betty, I’m going to develop a plan for the first phase (or phase I) of your care,” then it’s obvious there’s more to come. You don’t want her fretting throughout the exam that you may be about to recommend more extensive (expensive) treatment than the easy, quick, simple (and painless) plan you’re discussing. You’ve completed the exam and discussion regarding your first phase plan (though you’ve not called it by those words ... yet). Betty is happy, since she believes it’s going to be quick and relatively inexpensive. You’re not “one of those dentists” looking to buy a new car with her mouth. She’s happy and she LIKES you. When it’s time to say goodbye, Betty is sitting up, you’re readying to leave the room … and you turn back to her, as if it’s an afterthought … “Betty, I noticed you’ve had quite a number of old mercury silver fillings on your back teeth.” Allow her a moment to respond. She’ll probably start off just by acknowledging it or by telling you that most of those were placed many years ago. 3. Don’t Take Much of Their Time. HOW IS THIS ETHICAL? ALMOST AS IF IT’S AN AFTERTHOUGHT
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