By the book….more on Dental Implants and Fees

I spoke about our implant courses for dentists in the last blog. Since then we have had a successful peer review session with dentists and dental implant surgeons to discuss dental treatments. The evening was a success and we had a great turnout. A big thank you to Jasmin Wigglesworth and Stephen Green for contributing to this highly educational evening.

There will be many more events like this coming up. Our aim is to keep our dentistry constantly up-to-date and we believe that being involved in education is the best way to do it. It is very exciting for all of us as it ignites our passion for the job further.

Dental Implants – Optimum Dental Care

Most of the patients I see during a consultation will want to know 2 things.

1. What is wrong with me?
2. What is the best option to solve my problem?

These are the key points to take from a consultation. Once these points have been made clear, the patient can then ask about timescales of treatment and fees. They never want to know this BEFORE the first 2 points have been made clear.

“Sort by price” – this is lazy. This is how a lot of consumers shop online. This is OK if you are shopping for items such as paper clips or disposable shaving blades. For such items, quality is not important therefore, the consumer can afford to ignore quality and base their decision solely on price.

However, if this strategy is applied to dental care then we will have many problems develop. I have seen practices compete for the lowest prices and advertise the fees of a particular treatment to attract patients. The problem with this is that how can you give a fee for dental implant treatment, for example, without ever having seen the patient and without ever answering the 2 questions listed above?

The problem this creates is that it is easy to reduce fees if that is all you care about. If you disregard quality, long term care and buy cheaper materials then cost will be very easy to reduce.

Dental treatment should be carried out with quality and patient satisfaction being the most important points for us to work towards. We always aim to provide the highest quality of care and satisfy our patient’s expectations. If the patient isn’t totally happy, then we don’t just offer them a discount or ignore there concerns, we actually do everything it takes to achieve the patient’s expectations and make them totally happy. This is what quality dental treatment should consist of – it is not just buying a cheap product off the shelf, it is investing in a service and healthcare provider who will put you first – always.

It is also equally as important to be transparent regarding your fee structure. The treatment fee should reflect the treatment and service reasonably. Under expense is very bad however, so is over expense.  We take great pride in the service we provide for our patients, with each treatment being tailor made for each individual patient. We believe in trust both ways between patient and dentist. Our treatment fees will always be agreed prior to the treatment is actually started or agreed upon. This ensures that the patient will not have any ‘hidden’ fees or ‘surprises’  along the way.

Cheaper is different

Low price is the last refuge for the provider who doesn’t care enough to build something worth paying for.

In your experience, how often is the cheapest choice the best choice?

• Mohsin Patel BDS MJDF RCS (Eng)