We can anecdotally say that shorter consults lead to greater case acceptance and success in practice. The length of the new patient consult seems to be inversely proportional to the acceptance rate. The longer the doctor stays in the room, the less likely the patient will start. Treatment coordinators would likely agree.
It turns out that the dilution effect is linked to the power of persuasion and the length of an argument. The quality of your information has a greater impact than its quantity. Greater influence comes from fewer and more powerful statements. By increasing the number of arguments, you do not strengthen your case but actively weaken it.
The dilution effect
The dilution effect is a bias in which people underutilize useful information when information that is not relevant is also present. Less useful details dilute the important facts critical to making judgments. Social psychologists Richard E. Nisbett, Henry Zukier, and Ronald E. Lemley introduced the term in 1981.
Marketers know that providing consumers with less relevant information can decrease the extent they judge a product as beneficial. When sharing details useful in considering a product’s purported benefits, irrelevant information will likely dilute the impact of pertinent facts—weakening the consumers’ likelihood of judging the marketed product as beneficial.
Pharmaceutical companies have used the dilution effect to their benefit when they elaborate on the side effects of the drug they are marketing. A paper in Nature found that people exposed to the major and the minor side effects rated the drug’s overall severity significantly lower than those who only heard about major side effects. The FDA has mandated drug companies to list the side effects with direct-to-consumer ads. And combining major side effects along with benign consequences reduced listeners’ concern and relieved any hesitance in the marketed drug.
The dilution effect in orthodontics
Weaker arguments dilute key statements instead of strengthening them. The law of averages affects the perception and reception of information. Diluting the impactful messages confuses patients and diminishes the orthodontist’s influence within a consultation. Please stick to your strong message. Brevity is your friend in the new patient exam. There can be information overload, and we can talk patients out of treatment. Focusing on the patient’s main concerns and the important aspects of treatment will make your consultations more impactful. Informed consent is a critical aspect of therapy, but be careful how it is delivered when you can focus on the most relevant information.
