Treat people the way you would like to be treated?

The old adage "treat people the way you would like to be treated" doesn't generally hold up in the practice of dentistry. When extending the saying beyond courtesy and professionalism, treatment plans shouldn't be influenced by how you would treat the problem if it was in your mouth. Complex dentistry to rescue a failing dentition is fine in a dentist's mouth but the majority of people do not have the time, finds or motivation to turn around a severely broken down dentition. Instead, we should be focussing on taking a very realistic outlook on the patient's biological, psychological and social condition before presenting a set of treatment plans. Sure, it is prudent to discuss simple and cheap to very expensive and complicated treatments but we do have to be grounded on what patient's can achieve in partnership with yourself and not be too upset if they reply with "sorry doc, that's out of my price range".

Ask the patient what their goals are, work out where they want to end up and then present the options that can get them to their goal. If their expectations are unrealistic in your hands then tell them so. If they insist of pursuing a certain path that is unrealistic or unethical on your part then feel free to refer them onwards.