Why Dentists Are Scared to Try Anything New

Episode #402 with Dr. Zach Sisler

Change can be daunting. But you owe it to your patients, your team, and yourself to continuously learn and evolve. Dentists are afraid to try new things, and Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Zach Sisler to share three reasons why and how that fear can be conquered. If you give up on trying, that's the end of the game! To get into the mindset of trying something new, listen to Episode 402 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Gain confidence to be willing to try new things.

Seek out knowledge to find a way to succeed.

Don't be afraid of failure and rejection. Just try.

Be objective with rejection. Don't take it personal.

Trying new things leads to self-discovery.

You miss 100% of the shots you never take.

Quotes:

“The reason that this is important is because when I first came out of school, I was super hungry. And I mean I took every course under the sun. I wanted to try everything. I wanted to really ramp my practice up. And then, I think once you get to a point where things are going somewhat smooth and you do have some good systems in place, you almost get on this autopilot. You're like, ‘All right. Well, I could just coast here. I could just relax, ride this out for the rest of my career and be done.’ But realistically, I think we owe it to our patients, we owe it to our teams, and ourselves as well, to not become stagnant.” (7:53—8:33)

“I feel like there were three ways, as I look back, in why I wouldn't try something new, or why when I talked to other dentists, they don't want to try something new. And the first one would be, ‘I don't know how to do that.’ I'm like, ‘Okay. What don't you know?’ ‘I just don't know how to do that. I don't know how to do that procedure, so I refer that procedure out.’ I'm like, ‘Okay. Well, there are courses all over that you could go and actually obtain the knowledge to learn how to do this, and then maybe you keep more stuff in your office.’ Or maybe you decide that, ‘Hey, I tried this and I actually like doing it. Maybe I want to dive deeper into that and find more CE on that and learn more about that, and then apply more of that to my practice.’” (19:32—20:18)

“To me, the knowledge excuse is kind of a cop out. There are plenty of avenues, whether it be a course, whether it be a mentor, whether it be reading out of a textbook or journals or whatever. You can find knowledge to apply. So, that's kind of on you if you're not willing to at least seek out some of this knowledge to find a way to succeed.” (20:19—20:46)

“Reading is very much a weakness for me. I don't enjoy it. I struggle to get “through” books. They really have to capture my attention. And so, I set a goal. I was going to read 12 books last year. I was like, ‘I'm going to read a book a month.’ And that's a lot for me. But as I started reading, I found what I liked, and I found what I didn't like. And I found what captivated me and kept me really engaged, and I found books that like, ‘Ugh. Man, I don't want to pick up another one like this.’ But had I not at least even set the goal, had I not even tried that, I wouldn't have known what I liked and what I wanted to read more of and what I wanted to learn more about.” (22:35—23:19)

“To me, [reading] was starting something new and realizing how to dive into it and really what I liked from it. And I've done the same thing in dentistry too. I did a lot of CE on TMJ and liked it, initially. And then, when I started treating it, I realized it’s a complex onion with many, many layers, and I dove deeper down that route and saw what I wanted to take and what I wanted to utilize. And then, I did airway CE and I learned, ‘Okay. This isn't something I love, but I know people who do, and I'd love to get my patients in their...