You know absolutely that a patient will need the treatment you and your hygiene team recommend. You know how valuable it is to his/her health and well-being. But you can’t get your patient to agree, and see its value as you do.  So, you minimize, phase, or discount treatment. You wait and watch as conditions worsen, hoping the patient can some day afford treatment or see the need when the condition becomes severe. Or worse yet, you hold back on recommending treatment for fear of what the patient will think of you and your motives.  The result?  The patient suffers.  Your practice suffers. And, by compromising, you suffer.

In most cases patients don’t accept treatment because they don’t understand it or recognize its value.  Unless you have an educational system in place handled by a patient care coordinator, in conjunction with you and your hygiene team, treatment acceptance will always pose a challenge. The three barriers to treatment – time, money, and pain must be addressed adequately before the patient will consider treatment. Patient education, treatment acceptance, and sales need to be coordinated to work within an integrated system to assure your practice’s success.