462: How to Treat the 5 Most Difficult Patients - Dr. Bill Robbins&Dr. Jim Otten - a podcast by ACT Dental

How to Treat the 5 Most Difficult Patients

Episode #462 with Dr. Bill Robbins & Dr. Jim Otten

As a dentist, you want to help everyone. But sometimes, it’s okay to just say no. And to help you handle the impossible-to-satisfy patients, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Bill Robbins and Dr. Jim Otten, instructors for the Global Diagnosis Education study club, to reveal the common types of difficult patients and how they’ve learned to treat them over decades of practice. Even masters make mistakes. And now, you can learn how to avoid them! For more wisdom from the best in dentistry, listen to Episode 462 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Understand the types of difficult patients.

Learn to read red flags for difficult patients.

Avoid elective aesthetic dentistry on strangers.

It’s okay to say no. Learn how to do it effectively.

Quotes:

“The first [type of difficult] patient that I'm going to talk about briefly is the one that I figure out ahead of time is a wack job, or at least that I can't meet their expectations. And the older I get — I'm not great at this — I'm better than I used to be at reading the red flags.” (16:17—16:34)

“One thing I do not do is refer a wacky patient to one of my friends. It just doesn't make any sense.” (16:52—16:58)

“One easy fallback as a general dentist is to say, ‘Mrs. Jones, I'm sorry. I just don't believe I've got the skillset to meet your needs.’ And I'm not saying whether it’s emotionally meet them or technically meet them. I'm just saying I don't have the skillset. And they can't really argue with that. I mean, there's not much to say when a dentist says, ‘I'm not the one for you. I don't have the skillset to treat you.’” (17:05—17:29)

“Being able to say no is not one of my great strengths. But I have gotten better at it.” (18:11—18:15)

“We’re seekers and we’re healers. And we want to help everyone. We really want to help everyone. And we’ve got to realize that our skillsets are limited. No matter how talented, educated, developed, experienced we are, we all still have limited skillsets.” (18:23—18:41)

“Whether it’s a behavioral skillset, a psychological skillset, a technical skillset, they're all limited. And we’ve got to know ourselves well enough to say, ‘This isn't something that I could be comfortable doing my best.” (18:47—19:02)

“The second [type of difficult] patient is the one where I put the veneers in, the value is too low, they call back tomorrow. They go home thinking they're great, but they call back the next day and they tell the front office, ‘I'm not happy with the veneers. I'll need to speak with Dr. Robbins.’” (21:09—21:24)

“My standard line when I'm seeing a patient that I know is unhappy is, I say to them before we get started, ‘Mrs. Jones, may I say something before we get started?’ And she goes, ‘Sure.’ She’s sitting here like this because she knows I'm going to fight with her about the veneers. And I say, ‘I know you've thought a lot about this over the last 24, 48 hours. And here’s the deal. I promise you that I'm going to listen to what you say because I know you've thought a lot about it. And I'm going to do whatever I need to do to make you happy again.’ And that diffuses all the anxiety in the room.” (21:31—22:05)

“The second [type of difficult] patient is the one that I see what needs to be done, and I just do it. It’s no fun. But if you do anterior dentistry, you're going to cut some of your own anterior dentistry off. It is part of the deal.” (22:32—22:47)

“The third patient is the more difficult one, and the one I've probably had to deal with the most. And that is when they call up and say, ‘I'm not happy,’ and I didn't expect it. I thought they looked like a million bucks, and they don't.” (23:04—23:16)

“The problem is when they are unhappy with the results

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