Dr. Allen Nazeri (DDS, MBA) answers a prosthodontist’s question about low case acceptance due to patient 'sticker shock.' He recommends relationship-based selling: complete records at the first visit but delay fee/presentation briefly (no-charge second appointment) to allow patient 'incubation'—ideally within 48 hours. He also stresses careful, demographic-aware team selection and training so staff can credibly present higher-cost prosthodontic treatments.
Chapters
Hi, this is Dr. Allen. Welcome to my channel. Today I had a question coming in from a prosthodontist in Detroit, Michigan. The question reads, I'm a recent graduate prosthodontist from Detroit, Michigan and need your help to increase my case acceptance. I was taught in school to do a comprehensive exam on every patient and provide them with a comprehensive treatment. But I have found my case acceptance is very low as I think my patients are sticker shocked. Do you have any suggestions? I have been admiring your content and look forward to your advice. Well, doctor, thank you so much for this question. Actually, I have a series of videos that are available for purchase regarding.
You know, mastering communication skills as well as, you know, presentation, which I. In those videos I specifically talk about the importance of when you present, the time of the day you present, how you present to the patient. Where you present to the patient is very important. Now the relationship between the time that you diagnose and the time that you actually present the fees is absolutely important as well. So let me share my experience with you and tell you how you can.
Increase some of your case acceptance. Number one, you need to understand, in a prosthodontic practice, your average ticket price per patient is much higher than a general practice.
So a patient coming to your practice, they may be considering doing some work in your practice, but what their budget is may not necessarily be what the treatment is required. So if this is a patient that's coming in for the first time to your practice and you're going to do a thorough, comprehensive examination.
You may know the solution to that treatment. And as you gain more experience and so forth, you'll be able to look at somebody and know exactly what needs to be done. But you don't necessarily have to let the patient know immediately because they are still not ready to accept it. See, in this type of a practice, it's all about relationship based selling. And trust plays a huge role when it comes down to relationship based selling or elective type treatments. Right. So my recommendation is do all of your records and everything and let the patient know. Say something like this, Mrs. Jones, I have all of your information. I need a few days to go ahead and study your records and get back to you. Would that be okay? And from my personal experience, I can tell you 99.9% of the time, patients appreciate that and they'll tell you, yes, doctor, why don't you do that? Okay? Now I'm not suggesting that you give him another second appointment and bring him back and charge him an extra consultation fee. As a matter of fact, I would be very specific and tell the patient there is no charge for the second appointment. It just gives me a chance to study your X rays and records and so forth so I can get you, so I can understand your case better and write out all the options and the treatments and so forth. This basically lets the patient know, number one, you're very thorough, you want to understand things. It also allows the patient to go through this incubation phase where basically they know they have some major issues and so forth and actually, you know, it may become an expensive treatment and so forth and they really look forward to your answer in the second appointment. Now the key is though, you don't want to bring the patient back in so far late that all of that emotional attachment to the treatment is gone. So I would recommend getting the patient back in within maximum 48 hours. If not possible, then you know, obviously the first available time that the patient can return.
So that would be something that I would certainly focus on and I would prepare all of the documents and presentations again, all of my video series, go through all of these steps that.
Your office can do to make sure that the presentation is well prepared. Now.
This is not the same situation if a patient has already seen another dentist. So let's say it's for second appeal. The patient comes in, say, hey doctor, you know, I went saw Dr. So and so, and he gave me a treatment plan for six implants on the top fixed, upper bridge lower, full reconstruction. I need your opinion. Well, in this case, the patient has already received the fee, so they already have been shocked with the price and so forth. So if you want to go ahead and give them the price, the same appointment, it's totally fine as long as everything is prepared. You know, all of your write ups, everything is done nicely. The other issue that I typically see in the dental practices is that there's a, that sometimes the doctors don't feel like presenting themselves and they let a team person do it. Your team needs to be very well in tune with what you're doing and there should not be a huge gap between your patient and the team. So what do I mean by that? Sometimes I see practices that are hiring young people or maybe even older people, but they do not understand why the treatment itself costs so much money.
So one of the things I recommend is anytime you bring somebody into your team, especially if you have a prosthodontic practice, when you're dealing with more, you know, higher age, patient number one is very important. You match the demographic so it's best if you have a 70, 80 year old talking to a 50, 60, 70 year old person.
In comparison to someone who is a 20 year old and they may not have the similar life experiences. But also, but trust me, I have had receptionists 25, 28 where they're very comfortable presenting a very expensive dental treatment to a patient just because I have shown them. I have invited them to the treatments, to the operatory. They have seen what we do every day, the results.
How happy the patients are.
And also how we change people's lives that they become a believer in it. That's totally fine. That's the type of person you want to become an ambassador of your brand. Anyway, My name is Dr. Alan. I appreciate all these questions coming in. Please direct message me or if you have any question, please comment below. If you find value in this video, I appreciate it. If you can hit the like button, share it and if there's a bell notification also, please click on that. Thank you so much. See you guys on the next episode. Bye.
