I realized after years of educating patients about the
benefits of proactively taking care of their health that I was only marginally
successful.
I attributed it to a host of factors. Maybe I wasn’t clear
enough. Maybe they needed the message in writing. Maybe I wasn’t communicating
with them in the manner that they best received information.
I worked on all of these possibilities and greatly improved my
interactions with my patients.
Yet the results of positive behavior changes leading to
optimal health and wellness were still disappointing by my standards.
I wanted to see more patients succeed at taking charge of
what they can do to have a healthy mouth, body and mind. I respect inbuilt
disease susceptibility and discuss it at great length with my patients but
always stress what they can do to give themselves the best chance for a disease
free and healthy life.
I started to change my approach to this problem. I began to
study the patients that were showing the results that I wanted for all my patients.
They steadily improved their home care, were selective in their dietary and
nutritional choices, managed stress in a healthy way, exercised routinely and
partnered with me in a proactive and positive manner.
But there was one more commonality to their profiles that I
believe is the most powerful motivator of human behavior- conscious and
unconscious.
ALL THESE PATIENTS UNDERSTOOD THE WHY OF THEIR LIFE.
THAT MOTIVATED THEM TO TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES TO THE BEST
OF THEIR ABILITY SO THEY COULD LIVE THEIR ‘WHY’. THAT MADE THEM INTERESTED IN
WHAT I HAD TO OFFER AS THEIR HEALTH CARE PARTNER. THEY FOLLOWED MY ADVICE AND
RECOMMENDATIONS. THAT GOT THEM OPTIMAL RESULTS. THAT MINIMIZED ANY EMERGENCIES
AND UNNECESSARY TREATMENT NEEDS AND COSTS.
OPTIMAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS ALLOWED THEM TO FLOURISH AND LIVE
THEIR ‘WHY’
At this stage of my career, I do not ask my patients to
floss.
Instead, I say this-
‘David, Any inflammation in your mouth travels to every part
of your body. It raises your C reactive protein which causes chain reactions
that have been linked to multiple diseases that affect your heart, brain, joints,
etc. The scariest to me is the link of Inflammation to dementia !
What is YOUR reason to do everything you can to avoid
knowingly contributing to this disease process? That is the reason that you
should consider flossing daily.’
I am usually met with an initial period of silence followed
by- Wow, I never thought of flossing, my health, my dental appointment and my life in this way.
YOUR WHY-SELF CARE-SELF LOVE-YOUR HEALTH-LIVING YOUR WHY
I am passionately committed to this new messaging about
health because I know that nothing else really works to successfully bring
lasting changes to a patient’s life. It is only through their own motivation
that I am successful in helping them
So let me ask you,
What is your WHY
Until Next Time,
Be well, Do well, Live well,
Sunita
Celebrating American Heart Month at 229 Charles Street in Westfield, NJ
NJ Dental Health Center and NJ Dental Sleep Medicine Center
IMPROVING THE LIVES OF OUR PATIENTS
