Feelings Matter

As social beings, our limbic brain is quite adept at sensing the subtleties of the human behavior which surrounds us.

And because our dental practices are essentially aggregations of people, our patients have good feelings and bad feelings about what happens there.

As a social organism, our practice is perceived as a threat (run), safe harbor (stay – listen/learn/heal/grow), or a source of confusion (freeze). Consequently, some dental practices naturally generate feelings of trust, while others generate a feeling of distrust or uncertainty.

These feelings also manifest when our practices try to court patients through marketing efforts, as well as on the phone, at first visits, and during continuing care.

Taking the time to better understand how our patients perceive – on an emotional level – what we are proposing or what we are doing at the moment is the pathway to enhancing communication and building trust.

And trust is what moves patients toward “yes” and builds strong and enduring practices, particularly in times of economic challenge.

Paul A. Henny, DDS

Thought Experiments LLC, ©2017

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