Booking Dentist Appointments
Booking a dentist appointment seems like an easy and mundane task. However, most people avoid going to dentist or booking appointments until it becomes absolutely necessary. They wait until the last minute until the pain is unbearable before visiting a dentist. Their reluctance to visit the dentist leads to suffering which could’ve been easily avoided with a timely visit.
Why don’t people book dentist appointments? Is it just plain fear of dentistry? Is it an amalgamation of several different factors? In this segment we attempt to answer this question that why people hesitate in booking dentist appointments:
1) People are Afraid of Dentists:
This one is a no-brainer. Most people are really afraid of dentists. All those drills and sharp instruments are enough to give anyone sleepless nights. Moreover, visiting the dentist is now associated with painful and long procedures. Many people have had unpleasant experiences at a dentist’s clinic and these have propagated by word of mouth. Hence people have come to fear dentists. Shoddy dentistry by some dentists has only added to the problem.
2) Most Dentists Fail To Understand Their Patient:
With most dentists, the patient-doctor bond is virtually non-existent. Moreover, many dentists just see their patients as ‘just another patient’ and hence they don’t keep the patient’s pain or comfort in mind while operating on them. This has worsened the already existing problem of the fear of dentists.
3) Dentists Aren’t Patient Friendly:
This is another problem that hasn’t been tackled adequately. Dentists don’t make an effort to dispel any concerns that their patients may have. Especially within a surgery, dentists perform their work with disregard for the pain inflicted upon the patient. In such a case a little compassion would go a long way in making the patient comfortable.
4) People are Unable To Find Dependable Dentists:
Most of the news propagated about dentists is about how they inflicted pain upon their patient. Dentists till date are greatly demonized. Hence, people try to stay away from any dentists they’ve heard stories about. This means they have to look for other dentists. Even if people are able to find other dentists they are unable to gauge whether to visit those dentists or not. They don’t know how to assess whether that dentist is good for them or not.
5) Most Dentists Don’t Have an Online Presence:
Technology has touched every sphere of our lives. The internet has become our go-to commodity for everything. Apart from searching for their symptoms online, people also look for suitable doctors and dentists online. Most dentists don’t have a website or any significant online presence. This makes it harder for people to find good dentists. Even the dentists who have an online presence don’t have detailed profile laid out. So, even if people are able to find that particular dentist who has an online presence, they are unable to assess whether that dentist is suitable for them or no. Luckily, firms like Yeah! Local have stepped in to deal with this problem by helping dentists build up a significant online presence.
We hope you were able to relate to some of the points we raised in this segment. If you’re a dentist who is reading this, you know what areas to work upon to develop a booming practice. For the betterment of public health, it is important that dentist community comes together to tackle these problems. These problems however, cannot be solved by dentists alone. People, in general, need to come together to fight the existing prejudices so that they can avail better facilities and improve their health status.
