First impression dental professional#

In retrospect this is an extreme example of how a first appointment can be a practice-builder or a practice-killer. The make-or-break nature of first visits to the dental practice In the end I went through with treatment, became a regular patient, and referred other patients into the practice. She then talked me through what I would need to do, what it would likely cost and then set my first appointment. She listened, empathized, and congratulated me for being willing to walk in. I walked in with no appointment and simply told the front desk person what I had been told and that I needed to do something about it. Until one day I drove by a dental practice near my home and decided I was going to do something about it. That experience kept me out of a dental office for another 3-4 months. This was unsettling and I left with no intention of coming back.

The doctor then let me know I had a choice to make about if I was going to keep my teeth. As I read the description of acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis, he then let me know that he was not going to prescribe my antibiotics because he didn’t want me to feel better and not do anything to fix the issue. He then left the room and returned with a photocopy of a dental textbook with a condition highlighted. He entered, looked at my mouth, and asked me: “Do you want to keep your teeth?” No patient wants to feel shamed for discomfort with oral healthĪt this point I had not considered edentulism to be a possibility. We began the exam taking probing depths and about halfway through they stopped and got the doctor. I was nervous because I knew that I had neglected my oral health for too long. I knew that this was a problem, but it was not until my gums would bleed if you pushed on them with a finger that I really grasped the depth of my issues. Needless to say, this was a stressful period in my life and at the time my oral health had taken a back seat to the obstacles in front of me.

I had recently quit my job to start a company in a new industry and I was in the process of finalizing a divorce.

First impression dental professional#

This was an interesting time in my life as I was facing challenges in both my personal and my professional worlds. This experience occurred in my late 20s and had a significant impact on a number of initiatives I have been involved in at Spear - most significantly the development of our patient education platform. One of my first transformative experiences with the dental community occurred long before I was ever involved with Spear.