Have you ever tried to discuss the workload of school teachers with a teacher?

Working only six hour days… having to take twelve weeks of vacation each year….

And then there’s high school teachers. They don’t even have classes each and every hour of each and every day?

It’s the same for dentists….

They often only work four days per week.

Sometimes less.

It’s not physically exhausting…after all, all they do is sit on their tails all day long?

And they’re never available when you want one.

Here is my reality

No matter how bad the economy is, nobody in the world cares to hear how tough things are for dentists.

Nobody.

Ever.

Nobody ever.

Why do they call themselves doctors?

They’re not real doctors.

They only fix teeth.

How come they call themselves doctors?

Dentists charge too much.

I can’t believe what dentists charge…why do they charge so much?

For a filling…how small is that?

And how long did it take?

And an X-ray…. all that for that tiny little picture?

Really?

It’s not like they’re performing brain surgery…

Here’s the truth…

My wife worked in my dental practice on the front desk and as a practice manager for over ten years.

But it was after I left there, and I was working at a friend’s dental practice, that I needed to restore one of her molars with a porcelain crown.

Her first.

Her first ever crown.

And here’s what she said to me at the end of that preparation appointment:

“I didn’t know how much was involved in getting a crown. You really should charge more for this.”

Dentistry can be fairly insular.

Being a dentist can make you the subject of many jokes.

Also, telling someone you meet at a function that you are a dentist can be a real conversation killer.

These two things alone can lead dentists to only ever socialise with other dentists…

In fact I’ve often said:

“Dentists don’t have friends. They only have patients, and other dentists”

Dentistry requires a lot of behind the scenes preparation.

It’s not like pulling beers.

Or driving a taxi.

There’s years and years of education involved in getting the grades to be accepted into a university.

Then there’s the years and years of studying to become a dentist once you are at university.

Then once you graduate, there’s all those years of continuing education.

And there’s the cash investment

 It costs money to go to university.

It costs money to build a dental office, or to buy into a dental office.

And loans are not cheap.

Does the general public really have a grasp on these things when they tell you your prices are too high?

And what about the cost of all that fancy equipment?

We’re not talking about a desk and a chair and a few pens here…

There’s some pretty fancy machines in those dental offices now.

“And the chairs look more like spaceships than they do like the old barbers’ chairs….”

“And what about all those fancy hook tools they use now?”

Here’s my thought:

For the way that society perceives dentists, and for all that pain and suffering that’s heaped upon them by applying social stigmas, I think dentistry is a pretty tough game.

Sometimes, employing staff can be difficult.

And sometimes, patients and customers can also be difficult.

One of my mentors, who was not a dentist, said this about dealing with difficult customers, in a non-dental field…

He said, that no matter what EXTRA FEE that you charged those troublesome customers to make up for the difficulty that they cause you each time you deal with them….. IT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH.

And he said, that although it is something extra, that extra amount will give you some solace that at least that difficult customer has paid SOMETHING MORE than if they had been treated as just the same as every other regular, well-behaved customer.

Please…

Make sure that you are suitably compensated to make up for the fact that most people’s perceptions are not your reality. 

Otherwise, what’s the point?

*****

My next public speaking presentation showing Dentists how to grow their Dental practices will be in Sydney on November 9-10 and in Melbourne on November 12-13 with Dr Christopher Phelps, Dr Nathan Jeal, Mr Alex Lalovic and Mr Tiger Safarov.

For more information and to secure your seat click this link here.

*****

Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.

You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order

*****

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.

Email me at david@theupe.com

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