How to Communicate with Patients and Other Insights from My Guest Spot on The Big Talk with Tricia Brouk

So many dentists tell me they struggle with how to communicate with patients. After all, bedside manner is something we’re continually learning over the course of our careers! But on top of that, patient communication plays a crucial role in attracting new patients to your practice, which is an ongoing challenge for a lot of providers.

That’s why in today’s blog post, I want to share one of my guest spots on The Big Talk with Tricia Brouk from a few years back that tackles this exact topic—specifically, how I communicate with patients both inside my practice and through my online business. In addition to providing tips for patient communication, the podcast offers greater insight into communication in general, including why it’s important to understand your audience and how to tailor your message to achieve your goals. It’s a great conversation for any dentist, but especially for owners looking to grow their practice.

How to Communicate with Patients

Listen to the 14-minute episode here, and read below for additional thoughts on the key ideas from the podcast!

The Best Way to Get To Know Your Patients? Listen.

Since the recording of the podcast episode, my practice and online business have evolved quite a bit, and that includes who I serve. Whereas in the past, I primarily served patients in my practice and dentists in my business, these days there’s a lot more mixing going on! Not only have patients become an important subset of my online community, but I also regularly bring dentists to my practice through E-School LIVE, my in-person, hands-on, live-patient CE course. Plus, more recently, I’ve been focusing on helping practice owners build better leadership skills and create fulfilling careers they love. What a journey it’s been!

What hasn’t changed, however, is how I get to know my audience. No matter how much time passes, the number one way I learn about them is by LISTENING to them. It is so important not to make assumptions about what they’re experiencing and what they do (and don’t) know. 

How do I create space to communicate with patients? In my practice, I take the time to understand their tooth story and address their concerns. I also pay attention to reviews to learn their perspective on what I could be doing better. When it comes to my online business, I consistently review comments, ask for feedback, and survey my audience to find out what they’re struggling with and how I can help. 

When you listen to your patients, you remove the guess work about what they need and are better able to serve them.

Why You Need to Know Who You’re Talking To

Who your audience is (or in your case, who you serve) informs how you communicate with them. In the case of patients, who have FAR less dental knowledge than you do, it’s crucial you talk to them in a way in which they can understand.

Using my own experience as an example, when I talk to my patients, I like to use a lot of analogies. One of my favorites is something I talk about in my patient course, Tooth Wisdom: Each root is like a Twinkie. I go inside and pull out the dirty cream, clean it out, then put in fresh, clean cream. I’m also always certain to give them a full-informed picture of what’s going on. Sometimes that means letting them know what could happen if I don’t treat something, so they can make an informed decision.

When I talk to general dentists (like you!), of course the story is quite different. While you may not have the expertise of a veteran endodontist, you do have clinical experience that patients don’t. So, I make sure to honor your knowledge while also filling the gap with tools and strategies I’ve learned as a specialist.

Listening to their perspective is one piece of the puzzle, but simply being aware of who they are is also crucial to knowing how to communicate with patients. 

What Happens When You Don’t Know Your Patients

The first time I was teaching residents. I assumed they knew a lot of stuff they didn’t know yet, because they just didn’t have the experience. After so many years as a specialist, I had forgotten what it was like to be at the beginning stages of your career! When I saw them look at me with a “Huh?” look on their faces, I had to take a step back, gauge where I was losing them, and start from there.

This can happen with your patients, too. As dentists with a wealth of clinical knowledge, it’s easy to forget what it’s like to be a regular person. You may use words they don’t understand, go too quickly, or even assume they know something when they don’t, and this can diminish that trust that we’ve established is so important to build. So, be on the lookout for when you’re losing them, using body language and facial expressions to give you a clue. If you see you’re not on the same page, simply back up and try again! 

Trust—It Makes a World of Difference

Ensuring your patients feel heard and cared for allows you to do a very important thing: build trust! Earning patients’ trust is not only good for your practice, because it keeps them coming back again and again, but also good for their well-being. How? Because when they trust you and believe in their course of treatment, they actually have a better chance at healing!

Believe it not, belief is at the heart of a successful root canal treatment. And there’s science to back it up, folks! A positive orientation—which is strengthened by the trust between doctor and patient—makes a world of difference in the body’s ability to heal and can actually improve outcomes. If that’s not enough motivation to learn how to communicate effectively with patients, I don’t know what is!

Listen. Educate. Understand. Motivate. Accept.

Back when I was on the podcast, Tricia gave me a list of action words, and wanted me to select a few that resonated with me. I chose:

Listen, Educate, Understand, Motivate, and Accept.

I picked these words because they describe the process I go through with my audience, whether it’s my patients in the clinic, fellow dentists, or practice owners. If you want to know how to communicate with your patients, keep these words in the back of your mind. They can act as a quick reference tool to guide your interactions and help you build great relationships with the people you serve!

Communication is just one of the many skills that dentists must cultivate to run a successful practice. Build additional leadership skills, optimize your processes, increase your profitability, and create a career you love through my vision-to-actualization course for providers and practice owners, Heal Your Practice. Join the waitlist today and be the first to know when the course becomes available!

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– Sonia