How to Handle ‘Difficult’ Patients (Without the Emotional Trauma!) – PDP102

Heated confrontations with patients are never fun. Nobody likes to argue, and no Dentist likes being pressured or micro-managed by patients! In this episode we cover a lot of communication gems with Dr Vy Phan that will definitely allow you to remain calm and be effective the next time you face a 'difficult' patient (you know who I mean!) https://youtu.be/vDP5wIaK3Ok Check out this full episode on YouTube Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! The Protrusive Dental Pearl: Never to say 'No' to patients. Instead, be tactful by pitching it and phrasing it in a different way - you are still saying 'No' but in a much less harsh and patient-friendly way. I give some concrete examples in this episode. “One of the ways of gaining patient trust is education - there's a breakdown of communication often when the patients don't trust you and they're not educated enough” Dr Vy Phan This is the IntraOral Camera I was telling you about - inexpensive, high quality and a modern day necessity in my opinion. Available on Amazon In this episode we discussed: Big Challenges young Dentists might face in terms of patient interactions and communications 10:30When to consider dismissing a 'difficult patient' 20:20Advice to young dentists when a patient questions the level of experience based on age/appearance/sex 31:08The ‘My Way or The Highway Approach’ 38:04Communication gems with Difficult Patients 46:16How to Write a dismissal letter to difficult patients 49:54Handling Patients who continually ask for discounts 59:41 Check out Dr. Vy Phan on Instagram! If you enjoyed this, you will of course love Think Comprehensive – Communication Gems with Zak Kara  Click below for full episode transcript: Opening Snippet: (Vy) I think my way or the highway approach is really appropriate when it didn't the best interest of the patient, you know, you know that it would be different, it will be risky, you know, there'd be more long term (Jaz) Inappropriate, risky, just not the, it will land you in legal issues. (Vy) Exactly... Jaz' Introduction:Hello, Protruserati, I'm Jaz Gulati and welcome to this or can I say it's an awesome episode? Oh, my God Vy Phan will blow your mind. This is a real world topic. There are so many communication gems shared in this episode. And really, when it comes to communication skills, when do they really matter? I mean, yes, it's good to get case acceptance and building value through user communication. But what really matters is so tough patients, those confrontations, those arguments that you might have with patients, you know the ones where your heart is racing? Words can really powerful. And I think communication skills are really tested in those tough scenarios. And we're talking all about those in this episode. When it comes to the word difficult in difficult patients, I was really debating whether to use it or not. Because really difficult patients are just difficult people and yet difficult people in every walk of life. Like if you take an arbitrary figure, like 1 in 20 people, well, I don't want to use the 'A' word. So 1 in 20 people are not nice people, right? And so 1 in 20 teachers will be not nice. 1 in 20 doctors will be not nice. 1 in 20 dentist were not nice, for example, right? So 1 in 20 of all your patients may not be the nicest people in the world. And so to deal with these patients, it can be tough. And these patients, we classify them as maybe difficult. But the funny thing about classing patients difficult is that what you might perceive as a difficult patient, your colleague, your associate, may find that they get along with a patient really well. And they think yeah, what do you mean, Mr. Smith is completely fine. What are you talking about? So it actually varies dentists to dentist and so our perceptions are equally important. When we decide who is "difficult". There are lots of themes that we cover in this episode, like for example,