Blog - Page 80 of 310 - The McAnally Selling System

Give Complex Case Patients an Emergency Contact Path

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Should complex case patients have a way to reach me in an emergency? Absolutely they should, and giving them that pathway is part of caring, not just risk management. A patient carrying an advanced condition is already anxious. The last thing they want is to be scrambling at night, calling around, trying to find anyone who will help them when something goes wrong. So before they leave, hand them a clear mechanism to find you if there is a problem. It costs you almost nothing and it lands as genuine concern, which deepens the relationship right at the point where trust [...]

Give Complex Case Patients an Emergency Contact Pathjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Patient Complaints About Dentists: A Warning Sign

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

What does it mean when a new patient complains about every previous dentist? Pay attention, because you are next in line. There are bad dentists out there. I have seen practices that flatly refuse to update their clinical work or their ethics, and yes, some of them earn the complaints. But when a patient runs down every single dentist who ever touched their mouth, that is statistically close to impossible, and it tells you something about the patient, not the profession. The common thread in all those stories is the person telling them. So if you take that case, go in [...]

Patient Complaints About Dentists: A Warning Signjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How Difficult Patient Personalities Affect Your Fees

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How should difficult patient personalities affect my treatment fees? They should affect them directly, and you need to read this at the exam, not three appointments in. Not every patient is easy. Some have difficult personalities, and a few have extremely difficult ones. The patient who talks through every visit, needs constant bathroom breaks, has postural issues that make the chair time miserable, can only come one day a week at one odd hour, all of that eats your schedule. Anything that takes more of your time has to show up in the fee. Here is the trap. If you do [...]

How Difficult Patient Personalities Affect Your Feesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Non-Clinical Factors That Set Your Dental Implant Fees

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

What non-clinical things should affect my dental implant fees? Plenty, and if you only price the clinical work you are leaving money and sanity on the table. Roughly half of what sets your fee has nothing to do with bone or teeth. How badly the patient wants the esthetics, because high esthetic demand means more steps, more headaches, more remakes. Whether it is a re-treatment case, which carries its own minefield. The patient's expectation of long-term outcome. And then the behavioral side, which I watch for at the exam. Some people are simply harder to treat and harder to be around, [...]

Non-Clinical Factors That Set Your Dental Implant Feesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Matching Patient Testimonials to the Person in Your Chair

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Should I match testimonials to a patient's specific situation? Yes, and most dentists do this lazily. A generic five star review does almost nothing for a complex case patient. Once you know where you are headed clinically, this is the moment to put a treatment outcome testimonial in front of them that mirrors their own condition. If you have video testimonials, even better. Match it not just to the clinical outcome but to sex and marital status too. People believe other people who look like them and live like them. A divorced woman in her fifties trusts a story from another [...]

Matching Patient Testimonials to the Person in Your Chairjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Use the Patient Smile Photo to Open Esthetic Cases

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How do I talk to a patient about what their smile used to look like? Pull out an old photo. I like to ask about a wedding photo, the first marriage one, because people genuinely smile more in that picture than in any later one. That single prompt opens up the whole conversation about anterior esthetics without me forcing it. Sometimes they want back what they had. Sometimes they want something they never had at all. Either way it surfaces fast. Once that desire is on the table, you have real tools to work with, like running a digital smile preview [...]

Use the Patient Smile Photo to Open Esthetic Casesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Using Old Smile Photos in Cosmetic Case Planning

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why do I ask cosmetic patients for an old graduation or wedding photo? Because it tells me what they are really chasing, and it puts expectations on the table early. I ask for a photo from graduation, high school or college, or from a first marriage. There is a running joke, with truth in it, that people smile more in the first marriage photo than the later ones. What I am after is whether they want to return to a smile they used to have, or reach for one they never had. That distinction shapes the whole anterior esthetics conversation. With [...]

Using Old Smile Photos in Cosmetic Case Planningjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Discussing Clinical Findings: Now or at Presentation

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Should I discuss clinical findings at the exam visit or wait? Wait, in almost every case. At the diagnostic visit you cover findings only in the broadest terms. What the patient needs to hear is simple: yes, you have some serious problems, but the good news is I believe I have solutions we can talk through next time that will really take care of this. That is it. If you dive into the clinical detail now, you damage the presentation and the patient's decision making before you have even built the case for it. There is one exception. If you sense [...]

Discussing Clinical Findings: Now or at Presentationjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How Thorough Should Your Clinical Examination Be

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How thorough does my clinical exam need to be for big cases? Thorough enough that nothing surprises you later, and that means a written checklist. The clinical half of the diagnostic visit is genuinely up to you, your niche, your training, your judgment. If you have done a course like John Kois's, your list will be far longer than any generic one. But the point stands: clinical findings drive both the complexity and the fee. How hard the case truly is, whether the long term result is predictable or not, what the long term risks are, all of that lives in [...]

How Thorough Should Your Clinical Examination Bejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Questions for Building Similarity With Patients

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

What questions build similarity with a patient during the exam? Weave them in while you work, and write the answers down. Where are you from originally? Almost always something similar or interesting falls out. How did you come to live where you are now? There is always a story. Do you have family, children, grandchildren? They will tell you, and you will find common ground, oh, I have that many kids too. If they work, ask what kind of work, and share a bit of yours. And do not skip this one: do you have any pets? For plenty of people, [...]

Questions for Building Similarity With Patientsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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