Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Self Care, Self Love, Your Health- What is the Why of Your Life? There is a direct connection



I realized after years of educating patients about the benefits of proactively taking care of their health that I was only marginally successful.  

I attributed it to a host of factors. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. Maybe they needed the message in writing. Maybe I wasn’t communicating with them in the manner that they best received information.

I worked on all of these possibilities and greatly improved my interactions with my patients.

Yet the results of positive behavior changes leading to optimal health and wellness were still disappointing by my standards.
I wanted to see more patients succeed at taking charge of what they can do to have a healthy mouth, body and mind. I respect inbuilt disease susceptibility and discuss it at great length with my patients but always stress what they can do to give themselves the best chance for a disease free and healthy life.

I started to change my approach to this problem. I began to study the patients that were showing the results that I wanted for all my patients. They steadily improved their home care, were selective in their dietary and nutritional choices, managed stress in a healthy way, exercised routinely and partnered with me in a proactive and positive manner.

But there was one more commonality to their profiles that I believe is the most powerful motivator of human behavior- conscious and unconscious. 

ALL THESE PATIENTS UNDERSTOOD THE WHY OF THEIR LIFE.
THAT MOTIVATED THEM TO TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES TO THE BEST OF THEIR ABILITY SO THEY COULD LIVE THEIR ‘WHY’. THAT MADE THEM INTERESTED IN WHAT I HAD TO OFFER AS THEIR HEALTH CARE PARTNER. THEY FOLLOWED MY ADVICE AND RECOMMENDATIONS. THAT GOT THEM OPTIMAL RESULTS. THAT MINIMIZED ANY EMERGENCIES AND UNNECESSARY TREATMENT NEEDS AND COSTS.
OPTIMAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS ALLOWED THEM TO FLOURISH AND LIVE THEIR ‘WHY’

At this stage of my career, I do not ask my patients to floss.
Instead, I say this-
‘David, Any inflammation in your mouth travels to every part of your body. It raises your C reactive protein which causes chain reactions that have been linked to multiple diseases that affect your heart, brain, joints, etc. The scariest to me is the link of Inflammation to dementia !
What is YOUR reason to do everything you can to avoid knowingly contributing to this disease process? That is the reason that you should consider flossing daily.’

I am usually met with an initial period of silence followed by- Wow, I never thought of flossing, my health, my dental appointment and my life in this way.

YOUR WHY-SELF CARE-SELF LOVE-YOUR HEALTH-LIVING YOUR WHY

I am passionately committed to this new messaging about health because I know that nothing else really works to successfully bring lasting changes to a patient’s life. It is only through their own motivation that I am successful in helping them

So let me ask you,
What is your WHY

Until Next Time,
Be well, Do well, Live well,
Sunita

Celebrating American Heart Month at 229 Charles Street in Westfield, NJ

NJ Dental Health Center and NJ Dental Sleep Medicine Center
IMPROVING THE LIVES OF OUR PATIENTS