Niche Dental Marketing: May 2013

Tuesday

Why Do Root Canals Channel Negative Vibes, and Dental Visit Hides?

Dr. James Weaver

Before I begin, I'd like to thank Dr. Weaver, an Oakland, CA dentist (pictured) for his post on root canals that was the impetus for me writing this post. I also left a similar comment on his post.

I call root canals a tooth-saving treatment to key in on the benefit. My theory about the dissemination of its pain moniker is a confusion (in the mental processing of it) with the toothache pains and waiting to get it taken care of.

You add the floating around of those ideas to that the anticipation of the dental visit, more pain is 'created', and around the office portion of the visit, even more anxiety is generated. The memory of pain and how it's imbedded on the mind over many days, weeks or longer before the visit are hard to remove, if not impossible.

That's why regular checkups are needed. Not only because dentists can often find the culprit before it causes pain, but because then waiting "won't" be extended past six months, maximum. Of course, a good relationship with the dentist means the patient wouldn't wait for the next appointment at all.
They would just call and come in, most often that day or the next.

The meme that root canals (endodontic treatment) are painful is generated a lot like the negative comment versus the positive comment dynamic. My my wife always attributes this communication concept to Walt Disney, which is that a negative comment will spread 17 (give or take) times farther than a positive comment/review.

That said, to improve and tamp down the negative protestations dentists need to get out in front of the problem, online and off line, public (not patients yet) and private (in office/patients).