How to Ask Your Dentist for New Equipment (and Get a Yes)

It usually happens between patients. A dental hygienist catches the doctor in the hallway with a list: a new ultrasonic, a few instruments, a product from the last meeting. The doctor says, “Not right now.”

And that is the end of the conversation.

I hear it all the time: “My doctor is too cheap.” But most of the time, it is about how we ask.

Why your dentist says “not right now”

A wish list in the hallway can feel like a kid asking a parent. What we often cannot see is the doctor’s side: taxes, operating expenses, payroll, and the responsibility for everyone’s job. The timing may be wrong for reasons that have nothing to do with us.

When the no keeps coming, it costs both sides. Research in the Journal of Dental Hygiene found that feeling respected and recognized was the strongest predictor of whether a hygienist planned to stay. For the dentist, an empty hygiene chair means lost production and a long search in the middle of a hygienist shortage.

A wish list gets a no. A plan gets a yes.

When you ask your dentist for new equipment, the ask works best when it starts with the patient. One hygienist I worked with kept hearing no about a product they believed in. So they stopped asking and started building the case. The doctor said yes, and the trust between them grew.

In Part 2 of my Built on Trust series, I share the seven steps that the hygienist used, how to ask for more appointment time, and what dentists can do to meet their hygienists halfway.

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