If you wish to view this growth diary in audio or video format , feel free to go there.
Video: Growth Diary 11
Audio: Growth Diaries Podcast 11
You may be wondering why we are asking this question. In growth diaries 9, we talked about how growth is an exercise worth taking on a consistent and regular basis. In growth diaries 7, we talked about growth creating a deeper and wider learning for the team.
Now let's take a hypothetical scenario.
You see two new patients at the practice. Let's call them patient A and patient B. Amidst other findings, you recognise that both of them need restorations on the lower right first molar. As you are aiming to increase your independent or private book, you decide to offer a composite restoration. As you have been on all the communication courses, you know the questions to ask and the script to follow, that enables both patients to agree. Of course, you have also recently done the posterior restorations course, so you feel confident and competent to deliver the best for your patient. You have a space on the day to complete the proposed treatment. Both patients book in and the restoration are completed.
As a practice, you provided the restorations to them based on standard protocols. You saw them as new patients, explained your findings, proposed the treatments, explained the options, explained the costs and even obtained consent. You had space on the day and offered to do it, on the day, thinking of this approach as providing a great service.
A few days later, these two different patients call in because they have a query, or concern, about their treatment. Both patients have had composite restorations on the lower right first molar tooth. Both patients call in with the concern that "they felt rushed during their treatment and are not happy." It seems like something with the restoration is not feeling right.
So you call them in to review this. Everything appears fine. You reassure them both and they walk away. A few days later, your practice manager informs you that both have sent in a formal complaint. You are flabbergasted.
She also tells you to do the complaints handling CPD - which you duly complete. You have your PDP in place, you complete the relevant courses and the CPD prescribed to you. So you are confident that you have done everything right.
However, let us explore this deeper.....
Patient A is a person in the younger decades of their life, and has grown up in a certain culture. Patient A has certain beliefs and values about how they should look and what a smile is. They have had less experience of dentistry. They are detail orientated and like to take their time to make decisions.
Patient B is different. They are much more experienced. They have grown up in multiple cultures as an international worker and have experienced dentistry elsewhere. They lead a very busy life and handle multiple things. They generally make decisions based on best known facts.
So actually whilst both complaints are about the same thing at a high level, at a deeper level both of them are actually very different.
In order to understand the complexities of the scenarios, you would need knowledge and information on other deeper and broader aspects. These could include:
- Understanding the personalities (how do those who are detail orientated and those who are broadly orientated differ in decision making)
- Understanding the process of trust (do they take longer or less time)
- Understanding their cultural views and how that may affect decision making and assessing the outcome.
Ultimately you would need to understand the context for their complaint and the actual meaning of the words of their complaint. They both may say the same thing but the meaning maybe totally different.
These are the many complexities that are not addressed or deciphered when viewing a complaint as a complaint. Complaints handling CPD alone will not serve you or help you.
Your help will come from a different perspective. The perspective of growth.
This is the difference between CPD and Growth.
CPD simply looks at "what courses should I do". CPD simply looks at this from a narrow perspective of dentistry (dental courses).
Growth looks at it different. Growth has a different approach. It follows 4 steps
1. It identifies the TRUE underlying problem. The complaint in this case is seen as a symptom of something deeper and underlying. It could be that the patient felt that they didn't get the detail they wanted, that they were not given the time, or they felt uncomfortable. This leads one to identify the deeper issue.
2. It identifies the complexities that lead to the TRUE problem. Growth encourages you to identify understand complexities and therefore understand the wide range of learning needed. In this case, the complaint will have the cultural, personality, beliefs and values elements in the mix. Growth would help identify the learning gaps from a much broader and deeper perspective. Personality, culture and trust are the kinds of learning that cannot be done with just CPD.
3. It amalgamates all the learning into a deeper and broader understanding and develops a solution that encompasses all this. It helps you therefore see the two things as different complaints.
4. This helps identifying the next stage.
Growth helps you to overcome the 15 challenges and really make the immense leap. Growth powers your progress.
If you want to rise above those 15 challenges and become a powerhouse in this rapidly changing world, join us at TubulesLive on the 07th May 2025 as we unravel further. It also has a list of the 10 common challenges – how many of these do you face?
Have a look and if the questions resonate, sign up for the TubulesLive at https://www.dentinaltubules.co...
We hope these posts have given you food for thought. We hope you have found something different to think about. Having understood growth, do you think every patient complaint is the same? We explore this in the next part.
In other updates...
1. Check out the Tubules Thrive calendar dates for 2025. All our events including 3 super restorative courses with Dr Ed McLaren (in London and Scotland), our thrive days and the Thrive summit in Nice.
All the dates and booking links are at https://www.dentinaltubules.co...
2. We are running 3 exciting composite and ceramic preparation courses with Dr Edward McLaren from USA. You can book the courses by finding your course link at https://www.dentinaltubules.co...
