The beatings will continue until morale improves
Most people will have heard this rather humorous english saying that simultaneously makes us laugh and understand the futility of trying to make someone happy through beating them.
Yet it is common in dentistry
It is not surprising that so many people have anxieties about dentistry. It is simultaneously the most common form of surgery to occur without general anaesthetic and the second most intimate area of our body to have someone touching.
It's not that it is strange that people are anxious about dentistry, but that some are not!
With all this emotional baggage comes a common theme of embarrassment. The patient is already sensitive, anxious or embarrassed about the state of this intimate part of their body. This embarrassment is one of the most common reasons people put off visiting the dentist.
Yet it is so common for a dentist to tell a patient off for not having visited more recently. For the state of their mouth. For their tardiness.
Perhaps it makes us feel better to do this.
But is it an effective form of motivation? Of course not.
The patient needs hope
So often they present to my practice feeling their teeth are hopeless. They present thinking they will all need to be removed. They present thinking their mouth is terrible. And more often than not, its much less problematic than they think.
They need hope
So you tell them the truth about their mouth. But give them hope. It can be fixed. They can look good again (maybe not perfect, but definitely good). They can chew again. They won't get scolded for actually turning up.
A patient with hope tends to think their mouth is worth restoring and maintaining. One without tends to let it slip further into decline and decay.
So no matter the state of their mouth, or the number of years since the last visit, be positive and give them hope.
You may very well find that they turn up a bit sooner when their experience is positive. And you may also find that they don't return to any dentist for ten years if you beat them.
