Before you start bonding you need to bond
Adhesive
dentistry and minimally invasive techniques have changed the way we do
dentistry.
35 years ago,
when I was a dental student the only composite that we had was occlusion, and
it really did not look that great, and didn’t bond that well either.
Minimally
invasive techniques combined with modern day composites look incredible, they
have the potential to be practice builders, little if any drilling, fabulous aesthetics,
and function restored in one visit what is there not for your patients to love?
Before you
get a chance to do modern day bonding you will need to do old fashioned bonding
to build rapport with your patients. Experience shows that until your patients
know you, like you, and trust you, they are unlikely to invest their precious time
or money with you.
The great
news is that old fashioned bonding, or as we call it rapport takes very little time
it can be done using a video platform, over the telephone as well as face to
face. In the current way of working you can create deep trust and rapport with
your patients irrespective of the PPE or social distancing.
Our goal in building
patient relationships is rapport, a
close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned
understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well.
When you have this, you will understand
your patients and they will understand you. Other benefits of establishing
rapport, include less stress, less conflict, fewer complaints, patients
experience less discomfort or post op problems, happier patients, treatment is
easier to deliver.
Think about
it for a moment, If you are in an area where there are people gathered, you intuitively
know who gets on and who does not, don’t you? What is it that you are
unconsciously aware of to be so accurate? The psychologists have demonstrated
that it is a result of how closely with match another person. Those people that
get along well, walk in step, are in harmony and see things from the same viewpoint,
that is people are really connected and bonded, naturally become an echo or mirror
of one another.
Accepted wisdom
is that 55% of our communication is through body language, gestures, and
posture, 38% is through vocal tonality, volume, rhythm, harmony and 7% the
words we use.
If we assume
that this is true, what is our most powerful modality of communication?
That is
correct, your body language.
It therefore
follows, when we decide that we want to establish rapport, we actively choose
to do what people who get along do naturally, we become as much like our
patients as possible, because people like people like them.
I am going
to invite you to match and mirror as closely as possible
1) Body language including
i.
Head
position
ii.
Part-body
postures
iii.
Half-body
postures
iv.
Limb
position and movement
v.
Hand
position and movement
vi.
Gestures
vii.
Facial
expressions
viii.
Eye
movements, eye contact, blink rates
ix.
Habits
and ticks
x.
Energy
xi.
Breathing,
location, rate
2) Non-verbal vocal qualities:
including
i.
Speed
of speech
ii.
Volume
iii.
Timbre
iv.
Tempo
3) Verbal qualities
i.
Words
ii.
Verbal
syntax
iii.
Representational
systems
iv.
Meta
programmes
What we discover in our
workshops that when delegates match one another more closely, they become more
engaged, more interested, remember the conversation, feel more connected and
listened to. What impact would it have on your patient relationships if your
patients felt that way too?
Your patients are
unlikely to remember what you do, they are unlikely to remember what you say
and they will always remember how you made them feel.
Mirroring has been
tested and proved to be effective in lab research and please don’t believe what
I say, try it out for yourself, match and mirror people and notice what happens
to your connection, depth of communication and trust as a result.
Here are some examples of people matching, do you think it is natural or active, with the intent to build rapport? Does it matter? does the ends justify the means?
Examples of mis matching that breaks rapport and that you can sense that lack of rapport, lack of engagement, lack of trus, and even dislike.
Let me know what happens when you experiement with bonding techniques.
Jane@IODB.co.uk
