Dentists Who Invest Podcast
Official Podcast of the Dentists Who Invest platform. Talking all things investing, money and finance with a dental spin. Have you ever wondered how you can grow your wealth and protect your hard earned money as a Dentist? We've got you covered. Featuring famous guests such as Andrew Craig, Edward Zuckerberg and Benyamin Ahmed we delve deep into EVERY aspect of finance to educate and empower ALL Dentists.
Dentists Who Invest Podcast
Listen To This To Increase Your Take Home Income with Dr. James Martin
You can download your FREE report on how you can avoid financial mistakes as a dentist using the link just here >>> dentistswhoinvest.com/podcastreport
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Unlock the secret to boosting your dental practice income without depending solely on investments! Learn how transforming your communication skills can provide more immediate financial rewards than any stock market return. The episode reveals how translating dental jargon into patient-friendly language not only bridges the gap between dentists and patients but also empowers patients to make well-informed decisions about their oral health. By mastering this skill, you'll enhance both your practice and patient satisfaction.
Join us as we dissect the art of "patient ease" and how it's essential in making dental conversations more effective. Discover our simple yet powerful four-part framework designed to enrich patient interactions: identifying the issue, presenting the solution, creating urgency, and highlighting the outcome. Our insights, drawn from experiences in NHS dentistry, demonstrate that great communication is not a static skill but a journey of continuous improvement. This episode is packed with strategies to help you articulate treatment values clearly and facilitate better health decisions for your patients.
We also delve into practical examples, like explaining the need for a filling, to illustrate the importance of clear communication. Find out how to discuss treatment options while emphasizing urgency to prevent complications. By aligning treatment explanations with patient perceptions and using positive language, you'll guide your patients toward timely and beneficial decisions for their dental health. This episode is a must-listen for dental professionals eager to enhance their communication skills and patient outcomes.
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Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. The views expressed on this channel may no longer be current. The information provided is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional.
Most dentists out there would love to have a little bit more income coming into their bank account at the end of every single month, and one of the greatest misconceptions I feel that there is about the world of investing is that we all think that investments are the best way to boost our income. Now, whilst that is true that you do, you will be able to generate some income from your investments. Actually, realistically, for most assets, this caps out around the 9% to 10% mark. So the most ever generate in terms on your money, in terms of a yield, will be around about the ten percent mark. Now, if you want evidence for that, go and look at the american stock market, the s&p. It generally turns around about ten percent every single year on average. If you want a little bit more information on assets and how they work, I would definitely listen to episode 300 of the denison invest podcast, which covers that in detail. But suffice to say, if we can only ever really expect, at the very most, to obtain that level of return from our investments, the only real that means they're maxed out at that stage the only real other way that we can actually boost our returns but suffice and have a bigger pot of money on which we can get the nine to ten percent returns. If you get ten percent on a million pounds versus ten percent on a hundred thousand, obviously the 10% on a million is going to be that much more, but you have to get the money in the first place. You have to come up with a million in the first place to be able to get that return. So really, what I'm saying is we need to boost our income. Now where that usually comes from for a lot of us dentists is our nine to five is our clinical dentistry. So we can boost our income via that and do it in a way that holds true to our values and do it in a way that we know is serving the patient to a very high standard and is aligned with doing the best dentistry possible, then that's a win-win for everybody.
Dr James:And one of the ways that we can do that is via boosting our ability to communicate the value of what we do to the patient. Because, remember, the patient doesn't actually understand what we're doing. We're our resource, we're their resource of information. We're the only person or we're the only entity that actually allows them to understand just truly how valuable thing is that we're giving them the treatment that we are providing them, because they only really have one resource of information, and it's us. So they're relying solely on what comes out of our mouth. We're the sole conduit. So in that, on that basis and proceeding on that foot, well, we've got to think about it to ourselves, that if they're getting our information from us, then they're relying upon us to give them a clear understanding of the value of what we're giving them.
Dr James:Think about it like this If you've got a patient, the patient speak patientese and the dentist speak dentistese, so to speak. And what I mean by that is because we've been through dental school and spent so much time learning how dentistry works. We really speak a language that they don't really get. If you want to sell to a dentist, you get incredibly technical. If you want to allow a dentist to understand just how truly good you are at dentistry, you tell them about your post nominals, all the qualifications that you have, and you show them some x-rays of your root canals perhaps, and they'll be fully on board. They're sold at that stage. They're going to buy from you. Patients don't get that, so we have to be able to speak their language.
Dr James:Now, sales is something that gets a very bad rep, in my opinion, and so more so than it deserves, because really, what it is in essence is just being able to help someone get what they want. Now, the patients want the best treatment and we want to provide the best treatment. Okay, cool, brilliant. So how do we make that happen? And that's effectively what sales is. Remove all these other connotations. Remove the connotation of the sleazy car, secondhand car salesman and everything along those lines, because that is the sort of stuff that gives sales a bad name, a bit like how dennis get a little bit of a bad name in the media because of how certain people portray us. I feel like that's exactly the same for sales. I feel like we've got a little bit in common with that world.
Dr James:We all know how hard done by we feel as dentists whenever the media portray us in ways that aren't positive, and we also know that they're actually causing the patients to lose out as well, because they're indoctrinating them to have this fear, which means that they're reluctant to go to the dentist. So, listen, let's just remind ourselves that we do go through that as well, and all of a sudden, we empathize a little bit more. So let's talk about sales. Let's talk about how we can speak. So, when it comes to sales obviously we were saying just a second ago that really what we're talking about is helping people get what they want I feel like it's a very much a more healthy way to think about sales, as we are not trying to sell someone per se, we're just trying to articulate ourselves clearly, and if we articulate ourselves clearly about what is the best option for a patient, then they're way more likely to actually choose the best option.
Dr James:Now let's use the example of a dentist. Right, if we want to sell to a dentist, well, we just tell them all about our amazing treatment and how good we are and all our post-nominals and how good we are at root canals and show them some x-rays, and the dentist will probably buy from us. Right? The patients don't get that. They literally don't speak that language. That's the patient ease that I was talking about just a second ago, and we all think that we can speak patient ease. It's like we can and we can't, like a binary thing, but actually, if you ask me, it's more of a continuum how well it's not that we can or can't speak. It is how well do we speak it and how can we improve upon that skill?
Dr James:And listen, just for context, I thought I was slick, rick. I thought I was like the best at communicating of all time, back when I was doing NHS dentistry like 95% NHS dentistry and I was just convinced that nobody wanted to buy private dentistry, right? But I thought that I thought it was them, like everybody does. But in natural reality it was me. It was, I just wasn't articulating it clearly. So now I look back on that, I slightly smile, because I know that it's very hard for us human beings to comprehend how we can be better on that front. And I went through that journey as well and I realized and I was like right, wow, not only can I improve on that front, and even though I hopefully have improved on that front, I would consider myself to have improved on that front. I'm sure I have a lot more to learn, and we're all the patient needs that we were talking about a second ago how do we speak it? Or how do we, how do we improve on that skill?
Dr James:Well, listen, we could probably make about 50 podcasts on that, but I'm going to make a podcast today which talks about one of these most simple frameworks that you can use to have a conversation with a patient in order to get them to understand of the value of what you're doing like that, in a heartbeat. Because, remember, you can't take them through 10 years of education, five years dental school and five years working clinically to get them to be able to see things the way that you do internally, inside your own mind. So you have to be able to grant them that ability, but be able to do that in about 30 seconds during a patient conversation, so that it can be done in an expedited fashion. And then what that means is that patient all of a sudden has that wisdom in about 30 seconds, which allows them to make a decision which is best for them, which just so happens to be something that is more valuable, which just so happens to gather a greater level of remuneration associated with that treatment, which circles back to the income thing that we were talking about just a second ago. So how do we do that?
Dr James:Well, listen to speak the language of inverted comma sales. You have to talk to someone's subconscious rather than their conscious. If you try to sell to someone via their conscious, you're talking facts and talking logic, and we all know one day. One of sales school is that you do not sell via that. You sell via speaking to somebody's subconscious, as, in putting it in somewhat emotive language, that they can understand and relate to, and then therefore use that understanding to make a choice which is best for them.
Dr James:Let's talk about that framework that I was talking about just a second ago. I found this incredibly useful, and this came from a mentor, I'm going to say, like a year ago, and we weren't even necessarily talking about dentistry, we were just talking about sales in general, and he was like James, there's only really four parts to sales, and this is the most eloquent way I've ever seen somebody explain it. That it really, really, really stuck with me, it just stuck in my mind and I was like, wow, that is flipping, cool and unbelievably useful versus the million, billion, trillion sales frameworks that are out there that are just incredibly convoluted. What is that four part framework, then? Well, here they are the first part is issue, the second part is the solution, the third part is a sense of urgency and the fourth part is the outcome.
Dr James:If you hit all four of those things during your patient conversations, I guarantee you you'll get a lot more people who are willing to say yes to the treatment that you're proposing and hence make the best decision for their health, because you wouldn't propose the treatment unless you genuinely thought that it was going to help them, unless you genuinely thought that it was going to improve things for them, or else there'd be no point for treatment. So you do actually believe that. You do believe it will help them. So how do you get them to also believe that? Well, the best way I've ever found or at least at least part of that of that conversation with the patients, should be this framework that we talked about just a second ago. So let's just break that down so that everybody can go ahead and use that in the clinic tomorrow and be able to have better conversations with the patients talking about their issue.
Dr James:What is the actual issue for the patient like? What is the problem that they're experiencing or what is the problem that you've identified? Now, this usually is comprised of two things. Usually, sometimes the patient is problem aware and sometimes they're not problem aware. So say, for example, the patient comes to you and they need a fill-in and you find that on an x-ray well, they're not problem aware. You've just identified that via performing your clinical exam, whereas, say, if they come to you in pain, where it's very obvious that there is a problem, and they're way more likely to say yes, because they've clearly understood that there is an issue there. Now someone doesn't actually realize there is an issue. You just have to do a little bit more talking to get them to understand and realize why it is important that we solve this and do something about it, or else they'll just think that it's something that they can put off because their logic will be well, it's not bothering me now. Therefore, it's not a priority.
Dr James:Second thing you want to do is you want to talk about the solution. So what is the solution? The solution is how you're going to improve things or make things better. So, for a patient who's in pain, well, you might say you're going to extract the tooth. Patients like okay, the tooth wobbly and it's been bothering me for quite some time. Anyway, let's get rid of it. Fine, easiest conversation in the whole wide world, they're on board.
Dr James:The other solution would be another example of a solution would be let's say, the patient has a filling that they need at the back of the mouth. So they've got, you've got dental caries. So in that particular instance, you would say right, okay, mr smith, you've got a hole in your tooth, um, so what that will mean is that we need to do something about it. We need to clean away all those germs. And once you've cleaned away all the germs that are in the tooth, there's going to be that hole remaining. So what we got to do once that is the case is go ahead and cover that over so no more germs can get back in, and hence create something called a filling, and that's what we were talking about just a second ago. So you can link that back to the issue that they're experiencing the hole that they can see on the x-ray. So if you get really, really, really good at relating your solution to their issue, then what it will mean is they will get and understand how that will help them.
Dr James:Third thing that we need to do is talk about a sense of urgency. There needs to be some sort of understanding on the patient's behalf that there is a time sensitivity to this treatment. They need to, and most dentistry problems do actually are actually time sensitive, like there is a sense of urgency there. So you need to allow them to understand that in your language, or else you might think that that's very obvious, but they don't always get that like the patient just doesn't understand unless it's made clear to them. So I would always, always, always say, in every single situation where I'm talking about treatment, I would always give them an understanding of why this is time sensitive.
Dr James:With the extraction example just a second ago, well, it's pretty obvious the pain is going to go away, the pain is going to disappear. But in the filling example is not so obvious to the patient. So I would always make it very clear that the hole that we were talking about just a second ago is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger, get closer and closer to the nerve and the tooth and potentially give them nerve issues. Now, that's all you really need to say from experience. I mean, people don't necessarily know what nerve issues are, but they know they don't like it. You don't have to wield these scary words like pain, like infection, like disease and things along those lines If you literally just say that seems to be enough. That always was enough, enough for me.
Dr James:But just be very careful that you've wrapped in some sense of urgency to your conversations, or else the patients don't have a reason to act in the here and now. And this is the thing. It's not like this. You're just making this up, this is true, and you're just making it clear to them so they are enabled to make a decision which is best for them and therefore make the best choice. Because if you were a patient and you went to the dental clinic and so a dentist told you to fill in and they showed you an x-ray and you had a whopping great hole in your tooth, you're going to say yes all day long because you know how frib and bad a root canal is. The patient doesn't get that. They don't even know what. They've never even heard of a root canal, necessarily before. So, like I say, we need to make that clear to them.
Dr James:Fourth part is the outcome. What is the outcome? The outcome is relating your solution back to their issue in such a way as to give the patient an understanding of how that will benefit them and relate it back to, perhaps, the problem that they've articulated in the first place. So you say, for example, for the extraction, you will. It's very clear to the patient, isn't it, that you know, once we take the tooth out, the pain is going to go away pretty fast, whereas in the filling example, what I would say is what that will mean is this will protect this tooth, mrs smith. What that will mean is we'll go ahead, we'll seal that hole over that we were talking about just a second ago and, ideally, no more germs are going to be able to get back in with time. Therefore, we've protected this tooth and we've meant that the likelihood of there being nerve issues with this tooth is greatly reduced with time. We're giving this tooth the best chance possible of remaining healthy because, remember, from their perspective, they perceive it to be healthy. Now you know that the tooth has disease, but their perception is that it's healthy. So I always say remain healthy, should that be the case that the patient believes it to be healthy in the first place and that's where they're coming from in terms of their perspective.
Dr James:Very, very, very subtle shift in language, because if you try to say to someone, hey, that will mean that we will. You know how can we say this? You know, we'll stop the disease in this tooth or we'll stop the problem, or something along those lines. First of all, it's very negative language. I don't like that, that. And then also the patient finds that less relatable because they're like hmm, but I don't actually have any problems here, so I feel this tooth is okay. Therefore, you've got a lot more. You're up against it a lot more in terms of trying to convince them around your way of thinking, whereas telling them and saying to the patient actually this will allow it to remain to be healthy well, that's a lot more aligned with their current perception of how it is. So, listen, let's go ahead and wrap those four pointers into a conversation so everybody can see how it's done firsthand, and this is something you can use tomorrow. So, again, we can make like 10 podcasts on this, but we're not. We're just going to make one today on this particular example. So let's recap We've got the issue, we've got the solution, we've got a sense of urgency and we've got an outcome.
Dr James:So here's how I used to do it whenever a patient came to me and whenever they needed a filling. So I would say, mr Smith, if I had to look around your mouth today, there is two parts to having a healthy mouth, healthy teeth and healthy gums and then what I would do is I would basically pick the one that was healthier and focus on that at the very start to warm them up a little bit and to get them to see that actually we're not always here to say negative things to them, we're here to pay them compliments too. So I'd say, mrs smith, as it happens, your gums are particularly. I can see you're doing a great job. They're particularly clean, you're doing a great job. I certainly don't get the opportunity to say that to every patient, so I just wanted to let you know. On that front, the only thing I would say is they could probably benefit from a little bit of TLC from the hygienist, a little bit of a scaling polish, and then what that would mean is we could just remove some of the plaque which naturally builds up on them with time, and that will allow these teeth to remain healthy for as long as possible. But listen, first rate job, mrs Smith, really great job with your toothbrush. Can see you're getting right up to the gums. So what I've done is I've built a little bit of rapport with them and I have warmed them up a little, and I've also you know, everybody's got this perception that the dentist never has good news for them. Well, listen, we're here to break that down, and they really, really, really appreciate that. To the patients whenever you say stuff like that to them.
Dr James:So then what I would do is I'd move on to the teeth. Let's say they. Obviously you would tailor this based on the clinical scenario in front of you, but I'm just talking about someone who has maybe zeros and ones bpes and two down their lower anteriors where calculus usually builds up. Then if providing that is the case, then I would. The conversation would pan out like how I'm describing right now. So anyway, uh, onto their teeth. So I say, onto your teeth, mr smith.
Dr James:Now the good news is, mr smith, that the majority of your teeth are really healthy and actually, um, if we think about teeth like a scale, on one side of the scale, if we have a perfectly healthy tooth, on the other side of the scale, we have a not so healthy tooth which we might honestly be having a conversation about removing. Mr smith, the really good news is you have no teeth that are unhealthy. Vast majority of our teeth are super healthy, but we do have some that are heading the opposite way, mrs Smith, is Smith towards that unhealthy tooth that we were talking about just a second ago? Pause, ask them if they understand. Are you with me, mrs Smith? Right. So now she gets, you're already seed planting the urgency that we were talking about just a second ago, cause she's like oh, holy, holy, moly, so this is the outcome. Okay, cool, what's going to come next? Now, at this stage, you want to hear what's going to happen, because she definitely wants to avoid that outcome, which is the truth, and that will occur unless we do something.
Dr James:So, mrs Smith, I've had a look at some of you, I've had a look in your mouth today, and there's a few teeth that I've identified have small holes in them. It's not for none of the ordinary, mrs Smith. This can on occasion happen. The reason why it happens is germs that are naturally present in everybody's mouth can sometimes accumulate excessively in specific areas of our mouth, on specific teeth, and what that means, mrs Smith, is when that occurs, they tend to make little holes in the tooth. Now, once a hole starts in the tooth, mrs Smith, it's like a runaway train. It only ever goes one way. It only ever gets bigger and bigger and bigger, more and more germs get in, and that will get closer and closer to the nerve inside the tooth. You can see this nerve on this x-ray, mrs Smith. And should those germs get into the nerve. Well, that can lead to nerve issues, mrs Smith. So we certainly wanna do something sooner rather than later.
Dr James:Pause for understanding. Are you with me? Pause for understanding. Are you with me? Did you understand, mrs Smith? Now, here's the thing. They, at this stage, they know that there's a problem, they know what the issue is, they know the potential downsides to the issue. So, really, you've explained that very clearly to them and you're also giving them a second to confirm understanding as well.
Dr James:Notice, we haven't even talked about the solution just yet. We've just told them about the issue, the problem with their tooth, and they know that something needs to be done. Next thing, we move on to talking about the solution, and I would say okay, mr smith. So here's the good news. The way things are right now, we can intervene, we can clean this tooth, we can remove all those germs we talked about just a second ago. Now the issue is, mr smith, that once we've gone and cleaned away all those germs, naturally that little hole that we talked about just a second ago is going to be still be there. We need to go ahead and cover that over so no more germs can get back in, mrs smith, and what that will mean is that we've protected this tooth and we've given the best chance possible of remaining healthy. So I am, of course, talking about a filling, mrs smith.
Dr James:Now, all of a sudden, that patient understands how that will cure the issue that we were talking about just a second ago and remember they had no idea that that even existed until we told them. Because we're their conduit of information, we're their resource of information, and the next thing I would do what we've done very cleverly, just there is we've also actually wrapped in the urgency portion, because they also understand that there's gonna be some negative outcomes should we leave this tooth. There's gonna be inverted commas, issues with the nerve or it can potentially to a tooth that might be removed, because, remember, we already told them that very subtly via our explainer prior to us getting to this stage. So we've already done the solutions, we've already done the urgency side of things as well. We already got that. It's all wrapped into one, and then the next thing we need to talk about is the solution which we've already hinted at. We've already said this will protect the tooth, mr smith, and allow it to remain healthy.
Dr James:But then we can go on to talking about filling materials and everything along those lines, and that's when you get into your conversation of what the solution actually looks like.
Dr James:Is it going to be an amalgam filling done, performed under the nhs typically, but not always uh, obviously that's down to our clinical discretion as a dentist or is it going to be a white composite or something along those lines? But listen, that's when you get really in depth into the solution part, when you start talking about your treatment options. But listen, anyway, that little framework is the best framework I've ever found through which to have patient conversations, I guarantee you, if you're not getting someone to say yes, they either the two most common problems where someone won't buy from you. They either don't understand why it's important in the hearing now, as in that sense of urgency, so really lean into that or the second one might be that they don't understand how the solution that you're proposing will give them the outcome that they desire. So we've told them about the issue, we've told them about the solution, but we haven't actually linked those two together strong, strongly enough in the patient's head and they don't get how that will help them and give them an outcome that they desire.
