Managing patient expectations is one of the more challenging aspects of running a dental clinic because your expectations and your patients’ expectations don’t always naturally align. While you expect a specific outcome from appointments and treatments, your patients might have entirely different ideas about what happens while visiting your dental practice.

If you want to give your patients a comfortable and enjoyable experience, you’ll need to find ways to ensure they know exactly what to expect from you, your clinic, and your dental team. 

Dental Intelligence offers a comprehensive solution for successfully managing your practice and your patients’ expectations, with features including an effective Patient Loyalty Program and 2-Way Communication.

What Causes Unrealistic Expectations in Dental Care?

Your dental patients start forming expectations about your practice the moment they call, visit your website, or encounter your business online. If you don’t take steps to shape how potential patients view your dental practice, they could end up having unrealistic expectations.

Knowing why this happens is the first step to finding the best solution. Patients might form unrealistic expectations due to:

• Lacking information about your practice, such as open hours, wait times, and available services
• Basing their expectations on past dental care experiences or those of friends and family
• Missing details about their dental care because of rushed appointments
• Feeling anxiety about visiting the dentist and receiving dental treatments

Tips for Managing Patients’ Expectations in Your Dental Practice

Managing patient expectations helps you achieve two essential goals for your dental practice: providing an outstanding patient experience and ensuring patients meet your own expectations as a healthcare provider.

Here’s our top tips for giving your patients fulfilling dental care.

1. Make Information About Your Practice Easy to Access

You can help your patients set realistic expectations by giving them easy access to information about your practice and dental care topics. You can accomplish this with:

• Patient Portal for updating digital forms
• Follow-up communication via the patient's preferred contact method
• Informational blog content to build oral health awareness

2. Describe Dental Care in Ways the Patients Understand

Each patient you see is a unique individual with different needs and levels of knowledge, so you should ensure you communicate in ways they can understand. You should avoid bombarding patients with dental jargon or abbreviations of words to prevent confusion. 

3. Encourage Two-Way Communication with Your Patients

If patients can quickly and easily communicate with your clinic, they’re less likely to make assumptions that lead to disappointment when their expectations aren’t fulfilled. It helps to allow patients to contact you via their preferred method of communication, such as email, text, phone, or online chat. 

4. Personalize the Dental Patient Experience

Knowing what your patients’ expectations are makes it easier to exceed them, so it’s essential to get to know the individuals behind the medical charts. Take note of personal interests you can talk to them about during appointments, showing them that you see and understand them as a person. 

5. Check in With Your Patients’ Comprehension

Anxiety, physical disabilities, and other circumstances can make it harder for patients to absorb the information you give them during appointments. 

An excellent tactic for engaging your patients is implementing shared decision making, where you present each treatment option, give the details, and discuss the patient’s preferences to settle on the best decision. 

6. Use Your Empathy and Understanding

Many dental patients are afraid of going to the dentist, whether because of poor experiences in the past or not knowing what to expect. By establishing a good rapport with your patients, you can build trust and enhance their dental care experience.

7. Prioritize Your Patients’ Comfort

Some patients might be fine with unexpected delays or long wait times, while others will be itching to leave a scathing review online. 

Instead of leaving your patients bored and guessing about the wait, you can improve the experience by offering free Wi-Fi, giving updates on wait times, providing informative and entertaining media, and having comfy seating in your reception area. You can also provide Virtual Check-In to help lower your office wait times.

Exceed Your Patients’ Expectations with Dental Intelligence

Successfully managing patient expectations helps you make a great impression with every appointment, interaction, and procedure. Ensuring information is easily accessible and communicating openly with patients prevents unrealistic expectations that inevitably lead to dental patient dissatisfaction. 

With Dental Intelligence, you can streamline the dental care experience and delight your patients with convenient tools for Online Scheduling, Payments, and much more. Schedule a demo today.