Why does the dental decider’s involvement affect not just acceptance but post-treatment happiness?
Because the non-chooser’s satisfaction tracks the chooser’s satisfaction in shared-decision situations. Sheena Iyengar’s research on health and financial decisions documents this consistently. When a patient is happy with their dental decision, the satisfaction is reinforced by the spouse, financial decider, or family member also being happy. When the non-chooser is unhappy or uninformed, second-guessing seeps into the patient’s experience and erodes their own satisfaction. The implication: involve the non-chooser early and often. Not because they need to make the decision, but because their later happiness compounds the patient’s. The most thoroughly involved non-choosers produce the most enthusiastic past-patient testimonials, which feeds into the practice’s marketing for the next case.
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.