This is my insight on fanatics: People trust them.  I’ll explain this in a bit, but let me say first that I love fanatics. I’m drawn to people whose passion for what they do far exceeds any normal level of behavior.

My wife is a fanatic when it comes to cooking. She will spend two hours making me a bowl of soup. She will make jam with fresh berries from the farmers’ market, label the jars herself and then give them all away as gifts. She will serve dinner at the house and it will end up being 10 courses of everything from sushi to lamb chops. And she writes a food blog every week expressing her fanaticism.

My friend Tom is a film fanatic. (He would not call them “movies.”) He’s a walking, talking film database, and I appreciate every film I’ve seen even more after I’ve talked with him about them. He knows the history of the director, why the actors were chosen, what the score was derivative of, you name it.

And the reason I love going to my dentist is he is just plain crazy for dentistry. Great dentistry. Transformational dentistry. You want to know the science behind it, he’ll tell you. But you are for certain going to hear what he thinks you should do for your ideal oral health. He doesn’t decide if you can afford it, or if it’s important to you, or if you understand it. He’s going to raise your smile as a priority for you by his genuine enthusiasm for dentistry. And his whole team drinks the same Kool-Aid.

When people are passionate, we can’t help but respond. We get drawn in. (It’s why they have cheerleaders at ball games.) Best of all, I trust my dentist. You know why I trust him? The same reason all his patients do. Because he’s a fanatic. And therefore, we all know it’s not about the money.

Most dentists I know are true dental fanatics, but most don’t express it. I’m not talking about being a raving lunatic.  You can be a quiet fanatic.  But one of the biggest challenges in dentistry is that people think, a: you make too much money, and b: you’re only recommending the treatment because you want more money.  When you talk passionately about dentistry, this goes away.

There is some language that is key to expressing this, things like:

“You don’t have to do this treatment now–you won’t die if you don’t.  But it’s important if you want to keep all your teeth. And I look at that as my personal responsibility, and that’s why I get so much training in this exact procedure.”

and

“We have the technology to give you a fantastic smile, and that’s really going to change your life in ways you can’t even imagine. If you were my brother-in-law, this is what I would be recommending.”

Get the idea?  I know you’re passionate about dentistry–let the world know!

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