Welcome to What I Wish I Knew by Dental Head Start. This is a podcast where we learn from people that have been there, made the mistakes, learnt the lessons and have developed into the accomplished dental professionals they are today.

It’s your weekly mentoring session.

Imagine what you expect when you are seeing your accountant or a lawyer.. you’re paying top dollar for their time.. would you expect them to spend 15minutes of their time engaged in social chit-chat? Probably not. Often when we see other professionals, we value them for their expertise and most of the time really like them as well, regardless of whether they’ve asked us about their weekend. So why do we often do this as dentists?

Learning how to effectively communicate with patients is going to save you time, improve your relationship with your staff, give your patients more understanding and ownership of their dental needs and hopefully allow you to sleep better at night.

Dr Cigdem Kipel shares with us how to reign in our impulse to over-explain and communicate with our patients in a succinct, informative and genuine way. Get ready to take something home with you that you will absolutely use tomorrow.

Tips to Takeaway for Tomorrow:

  • 1:10 – Ask better questions and talk less – Get the Patient talking more
  • 2:45 – Not Much of a Talker? – Script an opener and then have some open ended questions to refer back to
  • 4:40 – Observe other dentists/specialists to learn new and better ways to communicate and explain conditions
  • 6:50 – Dental Analogies – have a succinct one sentence explanation for every condition
  • 8:20 – Utilise the Power of Photography – use photos to explain condition, get the patient talking and enable them to take ownership of the condition.
  • 9:50 – Co-Discovery – Always point out whats healthy to allow the patient to find the problems
  • 10:50 – Spend less time on social chit-chat – often over compensating for lack of confidence in clinical skills.
  • 11:30 – Show compassion, care and and gain your patient’s trust in other ways

I know I learnt a lot in my chat with Cigdem, and really hope you do too. Check out our previous episodes with her for more communication tips and gems!

Dr. Cigdem Kipel

Dr Cigdem Kipel is a passionate and inspiring Principal Dentist at a multi-award winning 7-surgery facility in Sydney. She is a confident and accomplished clinican with extensive training in implantology, digital CAD-CAM technology, orthodontic clear aligner therapy and aesthetic dentistry. However, her current passion lies in the non-clinical aspects of dental practice: patient communication, practice management, leadership and team development, systemisation technology and practice growth. 

Outside of the clinic she is the CEO and founder Principle practice management software and Level-Up systemisation software, she is passionate about leveraging technology and creating cutting-edge digital systems to unlock greater case acceptance, utilise more of the dental team in a patient’s treatment journey and to generate unique opportunities to provide convenience and wow-factors to the patient at every step. 

We got to know Cigdem a bit better.

Follow Dr Cigdem Kipel on social media for more excellent advice and check out her innovative practice management and systemisation tools

@dr.cigdemkipel

principletheorem.com

levelup.dental

principle.dental

Also, look out for more tips from Cigdem coming out on the “What I Wish I Knew” Podcast soon!

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The Dental Head Start Podcast is for students and new graduates. We interview successful dentists and specialists to uncover the tips, tricks and advice to help you transition from dental school to private practice successfully.

If you like this content then I ask just one thing of you; share this with a friend who will benefit from this and help us help more students and new grads!

David is a recent graduate dentist working in private practice in regional NSW, Australia. Read more at www.dentalheadstart.com/meet-david/

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