Office attire: scrubs vs business professional vs business casual

[Blake1e]

Been doing some thinking on work attire and it's impact on patients.

Dressing fashionably and professionally well has a positive impact on how patients view and behave around you. A well-dressed and groomed person is more attractive, given more respect and generally held in higher esteem. Obvious benefits include greater case acceptance, greater patient retention and higher chance of word of mouth referrals.


In my opinion, scrubs is the standard and, in comparison to the other attire, it is more emotionally neutral on its impact on patients. For discussion's sake, lets ignore the persons's level of fitness (obviously someone very fit wearing scrubs will have a positive impact) and just focus on clothing.

Scrubs
Pros: easy to clean, cheap, fastest morning dress up time

Cons: its bland (everyone wears it), has a neutral emotionally impact on patients

Business casual
Pros: higher emotional impact than scrubs (more halo effect), faster morning dress up time than business professional

Cons: money and time cost of going to dry cleaners, cost to purchase enough outfits to rotate each day for 2 weeks at a time, morning dress up time longer than scrubs, picking out and matching outfits, having to somewhat keep up with fashion trends

Business professional
Pros: greatest halo effect and has the most positive influence on patients.

Cons: most expensive of the 3 regarding purchase and cleaning cost, longest morning dress up time, plus all the cons for business casual



My thoughts so far: I'm initially going to do the scrubs + white coat and as I could afford more business professional attire, I'll start phasing it in. Business professional look minus suit jacket plus a fashionable white coat. Then eventually only wear scrubs when I dont have anything else clean to wear, on days filled with surgery and once in a while to showoff gym gains when I'm back on my normal exercise routine.

What do you wear to the office and whats your reasoning?

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[321931]

I go with scrubs + scrub jacket.

I get a ton of compliments from patients on it: Ionic Men's Scrub Jacket. They actually prefer it over the formal white coat.

I also get my staff the same scrub outfit but female version. Logos on it with name. The biggest benefit of these scrub jackets is that they are well fitted. They aren't your typical scrub that looks flimsy/baggy and just unattractive. They are fitted- and if you are in shape- it shows.

I have 4-5 white coats, and I always revert back to the scrub jacket. It's just so much more comfortable, and looks good with minimal trying....slip on scrub pants, a black t shirt, and some gym shoes and go to work- takes me about 1 min to get ready. Going with the white coat with tie, dress shoes and slacks...to much work, and honestly super uncomfortable.

 

[FutureDent020]

Yea, I don’t get the business casual look in dentistry. I know as an Endodontist it’s rarely done considering you are using bleach all day. But even has a general dentist, bouncing around rooms, seeing 20-30 patients a day. All that aerosol, splatter, and even sweat. It’s a hard gig and it gets messy. Slacks and a dress shirt just feels odd to me. But plenty of people do it. I do think professionally labeled scrubs are a nice touch and add to that level of respect OP is talking about.

 

[Blake1e]

I go with scrubs + scrub jacket.

I get a ton of compliments from patients on it: Ionic Men's Scrub Jacket. They actually prefer it over the formal white coat.

I also get my staff the same scrub outfit but female version. Logos on it with name. The biggest benefit of these scrub jackets is that they are well fitted. They aren't your typical scrub that looks flimsy/baggy and just unattractive. They are fitted- and if you are in shape- it shows.

I have 4-5 white coats, and I always revert back to the scrub jacket. It's just so much more comfortable, and looks good with minimal trying....slip on scrub pants, a black t shirt, and some gym shoes and go to work- takes me about 1 min to get ready. Going with the white coat with tie, dress shoes and slacks...to much work, and honestly super uncomfortable.

Interesting scrub jacket, that one looks much better than the other ones I've seen. I'll need to give that a try and see how it works for me.

I would honestly much prefer your approach, I'm not into fashion and dont like being dressed up. But like with all habits I could adjust and systematize new habits if I see enough of a benefit in them (like meal prepping for a week, I could do the same with picking outfits. And after going on tons of interviews I've gotten much faster in grooming and dressing up in business attire.) For me, the tie/noose is the uncomfortable part but leaving it slightly loose helps. Overheating is another issue if the AC is weak in the office.

Much to consider, some A/B testing on my end will be needed to decide what my standard office style will be.

Yea, I don’t get the business casual look in dentistry. I know as an Endodontist it’s rarely done considering you are using bleach all day. But even has a general dentist, bouncing around rooms, seeing 20-30 patients a day. All that aerosol, splatter, and even sweat. It’s a hard gig and it gets messy. Slacks and a dress shirt just feels odd to me. But plenty of people do it. I do think professionally labeled scrubs are a nice touch and add to that level of respect OP is talking about.

Aesthetically I also dont like business casual in the office, seen many dentists do it and I'm not a fan. You raise a good point on business professional attire and messes. Can dry cleaning remove blood stains on silk ties and gabardine pants? Would be a terrible shame to have to toss out an expensive piece of clothing after only a few uses due to stains.

What's professionally labeled scrubs? Are they custom-fitted, or do they just have a nice design?

 

[321931]

Interesting scrub jacket, that one looks much better than the other ones I've seen. I'll need to give that a try and see how it works for me.

I would honestly much prefer your approach, I'm not into fashion and dont like being dressed up. But like with all habits I could adjust and systematize new habits if I see enough of a benefit in them (like meal prepping for a week, I could do the same with picking outfits. And after going on tons of interviews I've gotten much faster in grooming and dressing up in business attire.) For me, the tie/noose is the uncomfortable part but leaving it slightly loose helps. Overheating is another issue if the AC is weak in the office.

Much to consider, some A/B testing on my end will be needed to decide what my standard office style will be.

Aesthetically I also dont like business casual in the office, seen many dentists do it and I'm not a fan. You raise a good point on business professional attire and messes. Can dry cleaning remove blood stains on silk ties and gabardine pants? Would be a terrible shame to have to toss out an expensive piece of clothing after only a few uses due to stains.

What's professionally labeled scrubs? Are they custom-fitted, or do they just have a nice design?

One of the highest end I know is Medelita. 108$ for a scrub jacket is not cheap- when you add logo and design- its more like 150 x 5 days a week x 5 employees and you have a 3000$ bill when you can go goodwill scrubs for 10$ a piece or go even cheaper and get the throwaway scrubs.

Silk ties and gabardine pants? Why would you ever wear that to the office? If I were to do business casual it would be like express pants with a gap button up with some discount bin tie.

At the end of the day... it's really not about how well you dress. There is a diminishing return. If you are clean cut, fresh breath, and look nice- going the extra mile isn't going to do much- if anything- if you dress to sharp- people are turned off by it because they start to think that the crown you just recommended is going towards your silk tie/porsche parked outside. Just look presentable and let your personality do most of the talking. Your personality is what people are most interested in. Not silk ties...

 

[Blake1e]

One of the highest end I know is Medelita. 108$ for a scrub jacket is not cheap- when you add logo and design- its more like 150 x 5 days a week x 5 employees and you have a 3000$ bill when you can go goodwill scrubs for 10$ a piece or go even cheaper and get the throwaway scrubs.

Silk ties and gabardine pants? Why would you ever wear that to the office? If I were to do business casual it would be like express pants with a gap button up with some discount bin tie.

At the end of the day... it's really not about how well you dress. There is a diminishing return. If you are clean cut, fresh breath, and look nice- going the extra mile of wearing a louie vuitton suit isn't going to do much- if anything- if you dress to sharp- people are turned off by it because they start to think that the crown you just recommended is going towards your silk tie/porsche parked outside. Just look presentable and let your personality do most of the talking. Your personality is what people are most interested in. Not silk ties...

I wouldnt buy scrub jackets for the entire office, only myself, as I'm just an associate at the moment.

Exaggerating a bit with the silk and garbardine, going the loius vuitton route is overkill and would have the opposite of the intended effect I'm aiming at. For business professional, I would go the mid-tier route. Which is still expensive and staining still an issue.

I agree, who you are and your personality are the main components to success. I'm not the type of person whos into status-signaling and fancy things, but it cant be denied that dressing a certain way augments how you're perceived by others.

 

[nobeldds]

I think what you wear matters less when you are older. As a young, newer dentist, I find a significant difference in respect from patients between the times where I wear scrubs and the times I wear business casual.

 

[sb.tnh]

A dentist that I shadow wears a shirt with dress pants everyday, but he also puts on a gown whenever he sees patients. He is an extremely busy owner dentist yet very humble and never shows off. Mostly because he practices in a lower income part of town.

 

[321931]

I think what you wear matters less when you are older. As a young, newer dentist, I find a significant difference in respect from patients between the times where I wear scrubs and the times I wear business casual.

Ah...I agree with this. I was pretty concerned with dress code and looking sharp when I was new...now- not so much. It also helps when your name is on the practice door and you see the same patients for recalls for years.

 

[Sublimazing]

I think this thread has forgotten the obvious go to...the Tuxedo T-Shirt...cause it says, like, I want to be formal but i want to party too.

 

[2TH MVR]

Business casual for my entire private practice years. Scrubs, tennis shoes and white jacket for Corp. The scrubs are so EASY to wear. Corp takes care of laundry.