The Dental House of Cards

In Business by Dental Entrepreneur

If you’re a fan of the show … there’s not much I need to say. You’ve already grasped the hand I’m going to deal. If you haven’t had your Netflix marathon like me and my better half, allow me to summarize one very important lesson. The winner in any election, in life, and in dentistry, is the candidate who crafts the best story. What I want you to focus on today are the answers to the two questions below and what you can do differently to make sure you’re building a structurally sound dental House of Cards.

No. 1: What is the Grammatical Foundation of Every Story?

Surely as I type and you read, I’m going to play Captain Obvious and call out the answer … words. Words have power. Words have the ability to strengthen or weaken a person and their position. And if the pen is mightier than the sword, imagine the power in our spoken words.

Take for example the real life version of today’s House of Cards. One of today’s front runners – Hairdo … I mean Donald Trump. Have you followed his two signature catch phrases?

“It’s going to be great,” and, “Believe me.”

Simple words, yes? So simple that many people laugh. I mean, what is he really saying? That said, with “Believe me,” there is a massive team of experts who sit in a room every day studying analytics on what plays well and what flops. They very cautiously and carefully select words because, for whatever reason, they are resonating with Trump supporters.

No. 2: How Does This Apply to You and Your Patients?

It doesn’t matter who you’re voting for. We could unplug Trump and insert Hillary … they both have wordsmiths on the clock. More importantly, if you understand the power in the above, and words truly are what keeps our dental House of Cards standing, how do we apply this lesson in our world?

Here’s the deal. Dental school is great. We need it, and we wouldn’t have a House of Cards at all without it. However, in dental school we learn an entire vocabulary. We learn lots of words that fundamentally don’t resonate with our patient supporters. Why? It’s not their gig. Think of it this way. It’s Monday morning. Your alarm goes off. You jump in the shower, and the water is frigid. If you’re anything like me, you jump out in total shock. Maybe you get lucky. You call your landlord. Luckily, they send a plumber. Plumber checks out the scene, pulls you aside and gives you the 101 and 201 and 301 of why your water is freezing.

“It’s the old copper pipes … It’s the rusted fittings … I’m going to use PVC.”
All the while, what’s the only thing that matters to you?
A hot shower.
Replace plumber in that story with dental student or dentist. Replace the rusted pipes with fractures and decay. Replace the copper with amalgam and PVC with composite.
Words …
If you want a dental House of Cards that stands the test of time, choose yours wisely. If you want to learn how, feel free to connect with yours truly. I am happy to help. Until next time…
Together We Rise!

Dr. David Rice graduated cum laude in 1994 from The State University of New York at Buffalo’s School of Dental Medicine. In 1995, he completed his general practice residency from the Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. With a strong belief in continuing education and mentorship, Dr. Rice went on to complete continuums at the Pankey Institute, The Dawson Center and The Spear Center all while building the Restorative Practice of his dreams and maintaining an associate clinical professorship at the SUNYab School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Rice combined his passions for teaching, mentoring and making a difference and igniteDDS was born. Today he continues to maintain his private practice and travels the country inspiring dentistry’s future to live their dream, have great success and to make that same difference that has brought him so much joy.