By Janice Hurley-Trailor, the Image Expert
We’ve heard, “If we want to understand someone, walk a mile in those moccasins” — or sneakers! Let’s apply that to our patient’s everyday experiences in the dental practice and take a look from the patient’s literal viewpoint. Look high. Look low. Look all around.
Looking up
On the high side, when your patients are tipped back in your chair and they look up, besides that bright light shining in their eyes, what do they see?
- Old posters of cartoon characters?
- Leaky ceiling tiles?
- Twirling teeth on a mobile?
- Chipping ceiling paint?
- Old television screens?
- Other eyesores?
It’s easy to forget about what’s on a ceiling, and I have proof! My parents once bought a home with hideous wallpaper on the kitchen ceiling. Neither liked it, so they planned to replace it “right away.” Year after year, as I returned home to visit my parents, I would ask about their plans to replace the kitchen ceiling paper until the time my Mom answered, “You know, I just don’t notice it anymore.” That can happen in our hygiene treatment rooms. We either forget what our patients see when they inspect our ceilings, or we don’t notice when something needs repair or replacement. You’ll also want to double-check these details:
- The cleanliness of your own glasses or loupes
- The cleanliness of the overhead light
- The cleanliness of the protective glasses you hand your patients; no scratches please
