That was nearly 50 years ago. Today, of course, insurance companies and HMOs are focused on less spiritual concerns, like quantifying services rendered or products delivered. But Becker believes that such a focus is misplaced. "The crowns and bridges get built by technicians and ceramics specialists who work with us," Becker says. "But what ultimately makes our work valuable are the things that revolve around these commodities, like judgment, and skill, and care."

Visit the Pankey Institute on the Web (www.pankey.org).

Sidebar: Do Your Meetings Have Bite?

For dentists (and their patients), the preclinical interview is an important part of the treatment process. For many interviewers, however, initial client meetings can often be underchoreographed events. Here are some tips from Dr. Irwin M. Becker, education-department chairman of the Pankey Institute, on how to make first meetings more meaningful.

Set the tone. Close the door. Hold your calls. Turn off your email dinger. The person you're meeting with should be the most important person in the world to you at that moment, so you ought to make every effort to give that person your undivided attention. Make a lot of eye contact -- but don't stare.

Ask fewer questions. Sure, you're the expert. But don't do more than 20% of the talking. The idea here is to distinguish real needs from perceived ones, to get a sense of the entire range of problems that might cause someone to seek you out.

Let your customers do the talking. People make more decisions when they're doing the talking than when you're doing the talking. At the same time, they need to be able to see, at the end of the conversation, why you're the right person to help them. Make sure they understand that you're there to help them neutralize future risks, not simply to solve acute problems that they're having at that moment.