Awareness, Trust, and Hope. These are the ONLY three objectives of our New Patient Experience. My agenda is not to sell you treatment that you do not understand. Instead I will work to help you gain awareness of the true present condition of your mouth, earn your trust that I am the one to give you this information, and give you hope that there is an alternative path if you do not like what you see. The entire process is driven by your unique goals, values, and needs. This is not a cookie-cutter approach to dental care, because you are not a cookie! Even two people with the same goals will travel different paths to get there. Your story of how you got to be where you are is unique only to you. With each new patient, I take the time to hear this story, and I have yet to hear the same story twice.
However, there are two general story lines that I tend to hear more than others. The first is that an individual feels as though they have always tried to do the right things, but they continue to have dental problems. The other is, that because of one or more bad experiences, an individual has avoided coming into the dentist for many years. In both cases, people have very strong emotions tied to their mouth and to their past experiences. Understanding these feelings is equally important in helping someone, as understanding their dental condition…if not more. The more that I understand about someone the better that I can help them understand their own values and attitudes toward dental care as well as their present dental condition. Once people have this understanding, this awareness, the answers to the questions of what they should do about it seem to come more easily. From this place of mutual understanding we can CO-CREATE goals and plans together that fit for each individual. From there grows hope.