Episode 162: Dr. Baird’s #1 Secret for Excellent Dental Communication

“Being able to communicate properly is an essential skill for dentists.” ~Dr. Bruce B. Baird

Communication is everything in dentistry. You could be the world’s best clinician but if you can’t communicate with patients, well, it’s game over for you. 

I think we can all agree that effective communication is absolutely crucial for being a successful dentist. So why does such a critical part of dentistry seem to be the one area so many dentists struggle with?  Here’s where I see the disconnect happening: effective communication is not just you talking. 

Effective communication includes learning what patients want, informing people in a way they understand, putting them at ease, building relationships, and fostering trust. These are all the outcomes of great communication. And when our patients understand what we’re saying and trust our judgment, that’s where the magic happens. 

I believe every dentist deserves to have a practice they love working in, and part of that formula is having the skills to properly communicate with the people who walk through your doors. So join me today as I share some of the skills I’ve learned over the years that can help you be a better communicator, including:

• The #1 thing you can do to improve your communication
• The importance of appropriate nonverbal communication
• Why choosing the right words and terms for each patient matters

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan 0:00
Hi Dr., Regan Robertson, CCO of Productive Dentist Academy here, and I have a question for you. Are you finding it hard to get your team aligned to your vision, but you know, you deserve growth just like everybody else? That’s why we’ve created the PDA productivity workshop. For nearly 20 years PDA workshops have helped dentists just like you align their teams, get control of scheduling, and create productive practices that they love walking into every day. Just imagine how you will feel when you know your schedule is productive, your systems are humming, and your team is aligned to your vision. It’s simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. We can help visit productivedentist.com/workshop that’s productivedentist.com/workshop to secure your seats now.

Dr. Bruce Baird 0:47
Effective communication. It’s just a crucial skill. Whether you’re, whether you’re a teacher, whether you’re a dentist, no matter what it is, you know, being able to communicate properly and to be able to put people at ease, to be able to build relationships, to build trust, all of those things are part of great communication.

Dr. Bruce Baird 1:13
Hello, everyone, this is Dr. Bruce B. Baird, and you’re listening to the Productive Dentist Podcast. In this podcast, I will give you everything that I’ve learned over the last 40 years in dentistry working with 1000s of dentists. I’ll tell you it’s not that my way is the only way, it’s just one that has worked extremely well for me, and I’d love to share that with you so you too can enjoy the choices and lifestyle the productivity allows, more time for things you love, increased pay, better team relationships, and lowered stress. Let’s get into it with this week’s episode of the Productive Dentist Podcast.

Dr. Bruce Baird 1:57
Good morning, this is Dr. Bruce Baird, with the Productive Dentist Podcast. You know, one of the things that I, that I’ve always worked on and personally worked on, and I’ve actually helped dentists over the years, is their communication skills and, you know, effective communication, it’s just a crucial skill, whether you’re, whether you’re a teacher, whether you’re a dentist, you know, no matter what it is, you know, being able to communicate properly, and to be able to put people at ease, to be able to build relationships, to build trust, all of those things are part of great communication and communication is more than just talking, more than just speaking and I’m going to go over some of the highlights of what great communication, what things can help you, you know. It’s important that you, to communicate that you listen, that’s, that’s kind of number one, I’ve always been one of those guys who I’m thinking about what I’m going to say, I don’t know if you guys do that, but I’m thinking about what I’m gonna say as someone else’s talking. Well, that’s probably not the best way of communication, you know, active listening, it’s, it’s paying attention when someone else is speaking, as our patients are speaking, I’ve got the appearance on my face, which is also something important is, that I am truly listening to what it is you’re saying and in my heart, I have to be doing that. I want to know where that patient is, and what kind of problems they’re having. It’s paying attention to the person speaking, using verbal and nonverbal cues to show interest, you know, and providing feedback to show understanding, you know, I always say, does that make sense and a patient will nod and you know, say, “Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” That’s my way of making sure they’re listening to me, but are you truly listening to your patients, or are you coming up with a treatment plan? I’m going to tell them exactly what they need before they have even voiced what they want and that’s, that’s really critical and it can certainly help in building trust, and improving the quality of the conversation. Have you ever had anybody up and talk about this? I’ve got one buddy of mine. Gosh, every time I’m talking to him, it’s just I love talking to him. Why? Because he actively listens, you know, and, and I think all of us want to be heard, and it’s important for our patients to be heard, you know. Another thing is using our body language effectively. Body language is a powerful form of nonverbal communication that can greatly enhance or detract from the message that you’re trying to convey. using appropriate body language, like for instance, eye contact, you know, when you’re my physician, you know, I go in, we’re talking a lot of times he’s got his back to him and he’s writing in his chart, that’s not actively listening, that’s just, you know, “I’m really busy, and I need to get to my next patient,” but nodding, smiling as the person is speaking, you’re gonna you’re giving them these verbal and nonverbal cues that allow them to feel comfortable in telling you things. If people don’t think you’re listening, they’re not going to tell you what they really need, what they really want, moreso what they want, because most times, they don’t know what they really need and it’s important to do that. Choosing the right words, you know, that can have a big impact on our message, using clear and concise language. Now, when I say that we’re dentists, we’re engineers, we’d love to tell people about well, it looks like you have pericoronitis around this third molar back here. That’s not a common communication, it’s not common knowledge. And it’s probably not the right words to use, you know, I would say, “Boy, that your wisdom tooth is really kind of infected, and it’s not looking real good.” Not some technical jargon, that you don’t know, we’re, we’re the worst at telling patients from a dental perspective, what needs to be done. I’ve listened to dentists to treatment plans for the last, I don’t know, 35 years and it’s always funny to me, you know, “We’re going to take some radiographs of your tooth, and then we’re going to determine see the peri apical lesion here, let me show you on the X ray, see the periapical lesion? Well, those things, you see this little red spot here at the bottom, that’s where the infection is,” and now with some of the new AI tools, it’s actually pointing to where some of the problems are, which, in fact, is actually probably going to change dentistry. Artificial Intelligence is already doing that, but let’s not let artificial intelligence do our communicating for us. Being aware of cultural differences is also something that, you know, effective communication involves being sensitive to the cultural backgrounds of others, this may involve adapting the way we speak, listen and use body language to better connect with us, folks. I always joke that when I’m speaking to somebody from the northeast, you know, and I’m a Texas boy, I start to speak a little bit more like them, I do the matching and mirroring when I, when I’m speaking to someone who talks really fast, I talk really fast and that’s something that’s super important when you’re in this communication stage, which would be what when are we trying to communicate first, when we first meet the patient, when we first meet this individual, you know that that’s important, but then also how are we communicating when we’re reviewing their, their treatment plan, reviewing their needs, what they need to have done, and so it’s, it’s always amazing to me that, you know, we’ll go into this diatribe of, well, this is what I see and again, using words and terms and things that they may not understand. I try to understand culturally where this person is coming from and, you know, if I’m speaking to a, one of the migrant farmworkers out in from out of the pecan orchard, I speak to them a little bit differently. I’m speaking to them horribly with a little bit of a Spanish accent or whatever people say that’s fake, but I call that communication. I was lecturing at a huge SEO meeting, this has been, gosh 25 years ago, and some of you heard the story, but I was I was talking about matching and mirroring and when people are talking fast, you’re talking faster when when when people are really talking with an accent, you talk a little bit with an accent and I do it naturally. My daughters do it naturally. It’s just something that’s just ingrained into your brain but it wasn’t always that way, it’s just something that I began to develop 35 years ago, on how do I better communicate. I went through and listened to all the neurolinguistic programming tips and I would highly suggest finding books that go read on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. When a person’s eyes go high left or high, right, what does that mean when they’re talking and they’re not looking at you? What are the nonverbal and verbal cues, but the cultural differences are one of those things that you can be in the middle of talking and I was speaking this large meeting, I don’t remember a couple 100 people in the room and there were a guy in the front of the room right off the front. He goes, “That’s a bunch of crap,” and I said, “Excuse me, I’m sorry,” this is during my talk. “It was SSP and fake,” and I said, “Well, let me let me ask you this,” and there were three guys sitting next to each other. “What if you speak Italian? What if you speak German and what if you speak French? Is it going to do me any good, but none of you speak English? How do I learn to communicate with you? I have to learn to speak French, to you, German to you and Italian to you and that’s called communication that’s not being fake. I’m learning to speak a language that you can understand and it may not be true language, like Spanish or Korean or whatever, but it may be how we speak, and the ways that we do things and what else is important when you’re working on communication with your patients.” Practicing, practice, practice, practice. I, I loved it. You know, Jeff Burski, has been my partner for a long time, many of you know, Jeff, but you know, he used to drive when he was my associate in the office, I was telling him about how to do the one at play or the case presentation and how do you talk to patients and he would, driving to Dallas, he lived in Dallas at the time, he was driving 80 miles, and he would talk to himself on the way, on the way to work and he talked to himself on the way home as if he was talking to a patient. That is it’s like any other skill, effective communication takes practice and I mean, you need to practice is something super important. Especially if you want well, what’s going to happen when you’re communicating? Well, number one is you’re going to be building relationships very quickly, you’re going to be getting trust very quickly.

Dr. Bruce Baird 11:55
And, you know, building this trust helps you build the relationships and then what does that do to your productivity? What does that do to your bottom line? Well, how do I communicate well so that my bottom line is higher? Well, that wasn’t my original reason. The original reason I wanted to learn to communicate is I wasn’t communicating with patients, they weren’t saying yes to treatment. I didn’t really, you know, I wasn’t talking engineer to the engineers. You know, I, and that’s critical for you to understand, it really is critical for you to understand, by regularly engaging conversations and practicing active listening, you know, all of those things with effective body language, individuals can improve that communication skill over time and that, to me, is progressive, that the more you practice, and we do this a Productive Dentist Academy all the time, you know, we actually break out into sessions we actually practice, what’s a better way to communicate, XYZ? What’s a better way to do this? What’s a better way to do that and it all comes really, from just research and reading and things that I did 30, 35 years ago, to try to help my communications and then what did that do to my productivity? Well, it made me one of the most productive dentists in the country, but that wasn’t my intention. My intention was to be able to communicate and explain what you really need and if I can do that, in an empathetic way, if I can do that in a way that makes sense and brings connection, guess what? I mean, you’re winning, you’re gonna be winning and so just remember, there’s lots of books out there on nonverbal communication, verbal communication. There’s a couple of great books written by an FBI agent. I read, I started looking at that. So nonverbal cues. Why did I look at that? Because I was playing in the World Series of Poker and I want nonverbal clues. I want to be able to look at people at the table and kind of get a feel of what it is. Well, I also want that with my patients sitting in the chair, what are they really thinking? So anyway, hopefully, this has been helpful this morning. I hope you’re going to have a great summer and it’s time. Remember, one of the reasons that productivity goes down is we lose our focus. It’s important to keep your focus during the Summer when you’re going to go on vacation with the kids and our grandkids or whatever. Spend time with them and make sure you’re there. When you’re in the office. Make sure you’re productive. So hope you have a great day. Look forward to the next time. Thank you for joining me for this episode of the Productive Dentist Podcast. If you found this episode helpful, make sure you subscribe, pass it along to a friend. Give us a like on iTunes and Spotify or drop me an email at podcast@productivedentist.com Don’t forget to check out other podcasts from the Productive Dentist Academy of productivedentistpodcast.com Join me again next week for another episode of the Productive Dentist Podcast.