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It was definitely the lecture on emotional intelligence that sent me off the rails in the early 2000's.

Alistair Miller (then Postgraduate dean for the South West, someone with a PhD from practice and recently President of the BDA) came to our BDA group in Derby to present a lecture. He was booked by my then boss and he gave many titles or talks that he could do and my boss chose emotional intelligence and I sat in the audience transfixed by what I heard.

The concept of emotional intelligence, as described by Daniel Goleman in his award winning, ground breaking book and the extensions to that which came later are truly stunning concepts. The fact that emotional intelligence can be learned and practiced, the fact that it is entirely different to true IQ, the fact that it is so critical to success in so many aspects of life.

Meeting new patients in dental practice is the absolute sharp end of the emotional intelligence spectrum. Being able to judge and gauge what someone wants and needs, how they would like you to proceed as a clinician, what kind of approach suits them best to make them comfortable in their healthcare, those are all absolutely critical.

We ignore this in trying to develop a system of governance and compliance. We assume that one size fits all as far as patients are concerned so let me explain. Let me give you an example of two types of patients who came into the practice in the same morning to see me recently. Both patients attended for a second consultation following the initial consultation where we gathered clinical information and were able to provide a treatment plan. Treatment plans were posted to the patients to allow them to view them prior to coming back to the practice for a second (free of charge) consultation to review and decide whether the treatment being suggested was appropriate for them.

Patient 1 attended and sat in the conservatory with me with a coffee and took 40 minutes to go through his letter. He was kind enough to point out spelling mistakes and errors in grammar together with asking countless questions regarding his overall treatment plan in detail. He came to the end of this period of consultation and decided to tell me "in the spirit of honesty" that he fully intended to take all of my information and the answers to my questions away to see if he could find the treatment less expensively elsewhere. I have no problem with this whatsoever. My response to him was that there are 10 practices within a mile of us who provide implant dentistry cheaper and any one of those may suffice. He then asked me to provide him with a list of questions that I may ask them in order to help him make his decision and what questions I should be asking of there quality and provisions for their care. He then went into a discussion regarding why he shouldn't have his treatment carried out abroad.

I have no problem with this whatsoever. Patients pay for a product in our practice and the consultation and assessment is a product. I am happy for anyone to take their information away with them and I was happy to give the patient an electronic copy of his x-rays on one of our fancy SD cards and wished him all the very best with sourcing his treatment. Some of these patients do eventually come back, because they understand the expertise and experience we have, and some don't.

The second patient was the Chief Executive on an enormously large company (and I do mean enormous). he attend for his options meeting (second consultation meeting) and I asked him "Did you receive our letter?" His reply was "Probably"

I asked him if he had any questions regarding the letter and he said "No, should I have?"

I went through briefly the most important aspects of the letter, as it was a lower implant I discussed potential for nerve damage and discussed the figures for implant failure. He then informed me that he had a meeting at 1pm and would it take much longer (in the nicest possible way, he's a really nice guy!)

We went ahead with the diagnostic aspect of his treatment including a CEREC scan and a CBCT and at reception he asked if my receptionist could contact his PA to secure payment for the services already received. It's an astonishing difference this; one person spends 50 minutes in the practice, has no investigations, has a discussion then leaves to go somewhere else and another person spends less then 20 minutes in the practice and has his full diagnostics, consent signed and appointments booked for treatment.

Both of them are right and that's the problem. That's where emotional intelligence comes in. You have to be able to read a situation, see what the patient wants, sit, discuss, listen (most of all) and allow patients to come to their own conclusions in the time available. In the end it seems to average out - 50 minutes and 20 minutes average out to 35 minutes per second consultation which allows 10 minutes to do their notes.

Blog Post Number: 924