Based on a PracticeCare® podcast conversation, Michael Sonick on Treating People Not Patients, with Dr. Michael Sonick, a periodontist in Fairfield, Connecticut, and author of Treating People Not Patients.
What does “treating people, not patients” actually mean?
Dental and medical schools teach procedures, not human connection. Dr. Sonick describes catching himself mid-procedure early in his career and half-joking that he suddenly realized the tooth he was working on was attached to a person.
When a referring dentist calls about “a good case,” his response is to ask what that person is actually going through. Framing someone as a case instead of a person changes how they end up getting treated.
Why does he treat inconvenient calls as an opportunity instead of an interruption?
Because how a practice acts when something goes wrong is what actually builds its reputation. Anyone can look good when the schedule is calm and on time.
One example he gives: a patient called in a panic after losing a tooth right before a flight to Portugal. Because Dr. Sonick lives a mile from his office, he saw the patient within 20 minutes. That’s the kind of moment a patient remembers for the rest of their life.
How does he personally stay connected to patients going through something difficult?
Every patient gets his personal cell number on his business card. His team calls patients the night after a hard procedure, and he personally follows up for several days after anything emotionally significant.
One patient who had all her teeth extracted broke down crying after surgery, because years of accumulated fear finally being addressed. He knew that reaction was coming and built the follow-up calls around it in advance, rather than reacting to it after the fact.
What’s the connection between burnout and this way of practicing?
He believes the real driver of burnout isn’t paperwork or hours — it’s the stress of not connecting with patients. Strip the emotional distance out of the relationship, and a lot of what gets blamed on administrative burden actually eases.
He evaluates every business decision through two questions: does this increase or decrease stress, and does it make me more or less effective. Anything that isn’t the human-connection part of the job gets handed to someone who’s actually good at it and enjoys doing it.
Why does he treat the “little things” — decor, front desk, phone manner — as a real differentiator?
Because most patients don’t expect to be treated well anymore. Waiting rooms are often designed defensively, for example, a glass partition or signage about insurance cards, and it is the opposite of hospitality. He models his practice after high-end restaurant hospitality, evaluating it on the same factors that used to define restaurant reviews: substance, atmosphere, and service.
- New patients are greeted by name because staff look them up before they arrive.
- Front desk staff proactively offer coffee or tea while someone waits.
- Waiting room magazines are current.
- One staff member is specifically responsible for hospitality details, suh as clean bathrooms, stocked supplies, small touches like free toothbrushes.
What does he say to owners who claim they can’t find or afford to train good staff?
He calls that a version of victim mentality and pushes back on it directly, asking people what their own part in the problem is before accepting an outside excuse. Most front desk staff never get real training. They’re told to “do a good job” without ever being shown what that specifically means, then blamed when their version of good doesn’t match the owner’s.
He also uses behavioral profiling to understand what kind of role and coaching each team member actually needs. A slow, deliberate hire might become excellent with clear structure and step-by-step guidance, while a highly social hire might thrive somewhere else in the practice but need extra help with detail-heavy tasks.
How should a practice owner start applying any of this?
Decide first whether you actually want to change. From there, he points to structured goal-setting (something he does quarterly with a coach), a mastermind group of peers working toward similar goals, and working through material chapter by chapter with the team, roughly one module a week.
None of it happens quickly. He’s candid that building his practice into what it is today took him about 30 years of steady, deliberate work.
A final note
It’s easy to hear “treat people, not patients” and file it under nice-to-have. Dr. Sonick’s version of it is a system built deliberately over decades. It’s one that happens to also solve the burnout, staffing, and differentiation problems most practice owners treat as separate issues. The tooth is still attached to a person. Building a practice around remembering that is the whole playbook.
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