Dentists invest more in practice management than any other professional group we know. This commitment to practice development is enviable and understandable. Normal pressure can make the practice feel like a battleground, where apprehensive patients stalk a beleaguered staff. Unfortunately, it's often hard to distinguish fad from solid learning, theoretical trend from sound advice.

Not surprisingly, some doctors catapult from one practice management expert to another with staggering regularity. Disappointment follows when a disillusioned dentist finds the guru not delivering, or when what seemed an exciting solution in Saturday's seminar drops like wet leaves at Monday morning's staff meeting.

There is no single answer. Dental consultants provide definitive advice on issues ranging from office furniture to collections, from staff productivity to physical fitness and marriage -- sometimes in the same seminar. The painful truth: There is no single, successful formula. Dentists need to first discover their own needs and then to customize a practice vision and orchestrate their communication to make that vision live. Consulting support remains a vehicle to help drive the doctor's vision. The practice is the big loser when change becomes frenetic.

	Purchase the Book

This is not the first book written about communication and dental practice management. It is the first to systematically reveal the nuts and bolts of what makes communication work. This book is about behavior. More specifically, it focuses on the conscious implementation of communication strategies in the day-to-day life of a dental practice. As each new skill is presented, you learn how to observe its occurrence and how to use it when you need it. We emphasize how to plan and practice your communication because preparation and rehearsal enhance interpersonal impact.

We recommend you read this book and share it with your staff. Think of it as more than another practice management text. Think of it as a handbook for change.