Dental Practice Heroes
Where dentists learn how to cut clinical days while increasing profits - without sacrificing patient care, cutting corners, or cranking volume. We teach you how to grow a scalable practice through communication, leadership, and effective management.
Hosted by Dr. Paul Etchison, author of two books on dental practice management, dental coach, and owner of a $6M collections group practice in the south suburbs of Chicago, we provide actionable advice for practice owners who want to intentionally create more time to enjoy their families, wealth, and deep personal fulfillment.
If you want to build a scalable practice framework that no longer stresses, drains, or relies on you for every little thing, we will teach you how and share stories of other dentists who have done it!
Dental Practice Heroes
Why Patients Start Treatment But Never Finish: Understanding the Psychology of Momentum
Discover the psychological key that unlocks patient follow-through with the endowed progress effect—a powerful concept that transforms how dental professionals communicate about treatment plans. This game-changing approach doesn't require changing your fees, procedures, or recommendations—just the way you frame patient progress.
Through a fascinating car wash punch card study, we explore why patients who feel they've already made progress are dramatically more likely to complete their treatment. Rather than overwhelming patients with everything that needs to be done, learn to recognize and celebrate the steps they've already taken. For new patients with extensive needs, acknowledge that simply coming in was "half the battle." For returning patients after a hiatus, reinforce that they're "the type of person who cares for their teeth" rather than making them feel they're starting over.
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Have you ever wondered why some patients say yes to large treatment plans but then never schedule, or why a patient might start a treatment plan and not finish it? We always want to blame money or fear, but sometimes it's not either of them. Sometimes it's just because they feel that it's such a large thing to complete that it's not even worth trying. They become discouraged and they procrastinate it. All right, today I want to introduce you to a psychological concept that you can start thing to complete that is not even worth trying. They become discouraged and they procrastinate it. All right, today I want to introduce you to a psychological concept that you can start using immediately with your patients and I promise you it's going to change the way you talk to your patients. It's called the endowed progress effect and it is the key to helping people follow through without changing the plan, the price or the procedure. Now you are listening to the Dental Practice Heroes podcast. I'm your host, dr Paul Edgison. I'm the author of two books on dental practice management, a dental coach and the owner of a large five-doctor practice in the South suburbs of Chicago. My goal is to teach you how to practice less days, make more money, all while taking great care of your patients. So if you're looking to have more freedom in your life because your practice runs so well, then you're in the right place. Let's get to it. All right, let's talk about this endowed progress effect. There was a study and it was with car wash punch cards. They gave one group of people, they gave them a car wash punch card. It had eight stars on it and every time you got your car washed you got a punch. And every time you got your car washed you got a punch. So you had to get eight car washes to get a free car wash right. And then they gave another group a different card. This one required 10 punches instead of eight, but two were already completed. So in both situations they just had to get eight car washes, but in the second situation they already had some progress toward it. And what these people found is that the people that had the progress were so much more likely to finish it. So what's up with that? Think about that If we have something partially completed, we're more likely to finish it versus starting from zero. So how does this appear with our patients? Well, it appears a lot of times with large treatment plans. It's such a big thing to complete and they feel like they have no progress. So how can we alter the way that we speak about it to get patients to finish treatment better and, especially, to say yes and follow through with big treatment plans? So think about this situation.
Paul Etchison:I know this happens all the time. You've got a patient that comes in. They haven't been to the dentist in maybe 10, 15 years. They're high fear. They come in and they need a ton of work. You're telling them what they need and you can just see the discouragement in their eyes. They knew it was bad, but they had no idea that it was this bad. And then you give them this long treatment plan with a bunch of fees and all this stuff and you send them home with it because they got to read it over, because it's so long, and then we wonder why they never come back, right? So one thing that I like to do with patients like that is, after I explain everything to them, I like to see if they have any questions and then I like to encourage them, give them a little bit of hope. I want to let them know. Hey, I know we shared a lot with you today and there's a lot of things that need to be done. But the hardest part, I assure you, was you just coming in today to find out what this is. I know it feels like we're starting from nothing, but just the fact that you're here and have found out what we need and we can start scheduling to get it done, that is a huge step and that is half of the battle. So let's keep that momentum going and make sure we get you back to do whatever X, this part, whatever this quadrant or this tooth or something, because then it takes the pressure off. Then they can pat themselves on the back and they can say hey, you know what? Yeah, it was really hard for me to come in here, but I did come in and I want to keep that momentum going All right.
Paul Etchison:The next one is think about a patient you had. You did their treatment, you've got them to carry free, they're just on normal recall and then they go away for maybe two, three years. Now when they come back, they might have some work that needs to be done and they might feel really crappy about that. So one thing I like to do with those patients is I always like to reinforce that they are the type of person that cares for their teeth. I'll say, hey, I know that you haven't been in here a while, but you are the type of person that cares for your teeth and you were doing a really good job.
Paul Etchison:I'd hate to see us lose all this progress we have because we just took a little dental vacation. Let's keep that momentum that we had before and get right back on track. We're almost there. We just need to see you back to take care of these two teeth right here. So again, we're anchoring to the progress that we've already had. It's not like, oh crap, I need these two crowns. Oh man, that's so much to do. It's like, no, look at everything you've done before today and that's how far you are, and now it's just these two little crowns. It's just this baby step, and then we're back to where we were. We have momentum. We're keeping it going by framing it about what's already been completed, instead of saying you know, you went away and now we're back at zero and look what we got to do. We are not back at zero. Never, never, never make the patient feel that they're back at zero, all right.
Paul Etchison:The next way to do this is think about patients when they have a big treatment plan. After we see the patient for a visit, we'll often sit them up and give them the post-operative instructions and they'll say okay, next time we're gonna take care of this, this and this. If you are doing that, one thing you need to do is you need to make sure that you don't forget about what was already done. Remember, we want to talk about what was already completed. We're riding that momentum Now. We might still have a lot of things to do, but let's not forget about all the things we have completed, as well as the things that we just completed today. Okay, so, since we started, we completed these two quadrants. We just have one more to go. We just have two more to go. We're almost there. Let's not lose that momentum. Make sure you schedule this one in the next month so that we can keep going and to get you back at your best dental health, because sometimes patients will just say you know what? I got a lot done, but you know this was enough for the year. I don't need to keep going, and we also want to focus on that.
Paul Etchison:Cavities continue to spread. We don't want to ruin the investments that we've already paid for and already completed. We don't want to break those new things that we already put in their mouth. So latch onto the stuff that's already completed to help you keep that momentum to go forward and get your patient to say yes again. Just because they said yes once doesn't mean they will continue to be saying yes. And remember this is a patient that's already at your practice. They've already been diagnosed, they've already had treatment presented to them. They just need to schedule it and complete it. It's a lot less friction compared to somebody that's calling your office and needs to be converted over the phone, needs to show up for their appointment, needs to be then diagnosed and all that and so on. So no matter what situation we run into with patients, we want to give them the idea that they're almost there. They've completed so much and they're almost there.
Paul Etchison:The key is really simple. People don't follow through because something makes logical sense. They follow through when it feels like they're already succeeding and they don't want to lose the progress they've already made. It's that whole loss aversion idea. So when you're presenting treatment, you're collecting payments or maybe you're trying to get a patient to finish what they started, ask yourself how can I recognize the progress that they've already made and you're collecting payments, or maybe you're trying to get a patient to finish what they started ask yourself how can I recognize the progress that they've already made? And you're not changing what you're doing, you're just changing the way that you're framing it. So here's what I want you to do this week with the patient.
Paul Etchison:Pick one patient interaction today where follow through is going to matter. And maybe it's a patient that's hesitant, maybe it's somebody that just came in and hasn't been there for a while. Maybe it's somebody that went away for a little bit and came back, or maybe it's somebody that only partially completed their treatment plan. I don't know. But you want to use that endowed progress effect. You want to reframe it. Show them what they've already done and see if they're more likely to continue forward and ride that momentum. I assure you they are. And if you want help getting your entire team aligned on case presentation principles like this, you need to check out our coaching options at dentalpracticeheroescom. This is the sort of stuff that makes case acceptance automatic. You've got to train this stuff to your team. I thank you so much for listening and spending a little bit of time with me today. We will talk to you next time. Have a great week.
