Welcome back to the academy. In Session 1, we discussed mindset. Why is this so important? The mindset one has defines who we are, what we do, and why we do what we do. It is fundamental to reaching your goals or falling short.

In this session, we will explore the examination process. You may be thinking, “We do these every day”. Yes, you do. But do you do it with a job in mind, or with the real purpose of a healer?

Understanding Different Examinations

Let’s first quickly discuss the different types of examinations. We have the Emergency Exam. We all know what that means: “Doc, I’m in pain. Need the tooth out and some meds”. Then we have the Limited Exam. These patients are similar to emergency cases, but the situation is not as “violent” or “fired up”.

Both of these examination types offer us a “sneak preview” into what’s behind the curtain. We have a chance to glance and look for red flags that might offer the answer they are looking for, even if they don’t know how to ask for it. Simply put, yes, that tooth may need to be removed, but why did that one tooth fail on its own? Was it a failed root canal? Did it break from too much decay or bite overload? Or is there something deeper—an internal issue—and this is just an early warning sign?

Then, we move onto the traditional Complete Exams. These are sometimes broken down further into initial, comprehensive, periodontal, etc.. But in actuality, they are all, or should be complete. By definition, “complete” means all-inclusive, not missing any part of the totality. Yet we leave things out every day.

The Critical “Why”

The first thing we always need to address is the “Why?” Why are they here? Why did they finally decide to come in? Why did they decide to come to us?

These “Whys” present a very large challenge. Miss out on identifying the real answers to these questions, and you may get caught in a terrible dental vortex of confusion, time wasting, and much more with these patients. Getting to these answers is critical to starting to identify their mindset and determining if they will need a lot of coaching or not so much.

In Session 3, we will dive deep into the “Whys” and how to extract the gold that lies hidden there, which will allow us to best serve our patients.