Should I present treatment options or work to a patient’s budget?
Offer options, almost always. After I frame the range I give the patient a choice. I can build a set of options at different costs and benefits, or I can stick to a strict budget and show what is possible within it. Which do you prefer? About ninety-five percent choose options, which is exactly what you want, because options let you present value instead of squeezing care into an arbitrary number. The old budget-first approach is silliness. No one walks around with a dental budget. Most households do not budget for this at all, so the word just confuses things. Stick to ranges of options unless the patient volunteers a hard number like I have set aside this much. When they do, great, that is even more useful. But you lead with options, not budget.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.