Dentist burnout is a growing concern in the dental community, characterized by physical and emotional exhaustion, a sense of reduced accomplishment, and a loss of personal identity. It’s a silent yet debilitating condition often resulting from prolonged stress and excessive workload.
Today, we’ll look at factors contributing to burnout and effective strategies to combat and prevent it, ensuring that you can maintain your well-being, continue providing excellent patient care, and find fulfillment in your profession. Let’s deep-dive into actionable steps to balance professional demands with personal needs, for a more sustainable, healthy career in dentistry.
Table of Contents
What Is Dentist Burnout?
Dentist burnout is relatively common in the dental industry, as well as with other healthcare professionals, and happens when a dentist begins feeling dissatisfied with their work. It is often marked by a sense of restlessness, dissatisfaction, unease, and general unhappiness regarding the practice and patient care, as well as feelings of personal failure.
Why Is the Burnout Rate So High?
Dentists experience burnout at a higher rate than many other professions due to a combination of factors, including workload, emotional labour, perfectionism, lack of control and work-life imbalance to name a few.
According to a study titled “High prevalence rates of burnout and emotional exhaustion among the dental profession”, up to 13% of dental professionals experienced burnout. Kelvin I. Afrashtehfar and Carlos A. Jurado completed a systematic review of 37 articles and studies focused on burnout research in a quantitative analysis representing over 13,000 dentists from around the world.
The results showed that dentists suffered from a high rate of emotional exhaustion (25%), high depersonalization (18%), and low personal accomplishment (32%). The study was published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice on April 26, 2023. Overall, job burnout is higher with newly graduated dentists than with older, more established dental professionals, so dental students and new dentists are at a higher risk than older dentists.
What Are the Signs of Burnout?
The signs of burnout amongst dentists are emotional disengagement, increasing cynism and prolonged fatigue to name a few.
Preventing burnout is important for maintaining good physical and mental health while building successful dental practices. That requires knowing the signs of burnout, which, according to the American Dental Association and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, can include the following:
Emotional disengagement, including difficulty going to the practice each day
Increasing cynicism, especially regarding patient care or staff actions
Prolonged fatigue, particularly relating to patient care
A sense of reduced personal accomplishment
Increasing irritability, particularly when in the dental office
A growing sense of isolation from family, staff, and peers
A rising incidence of sleep disorders
Physical symptoms, such as muscle aches, stomach aches, and headaches
Increased risk of substance use disorders
How Do You Recover from Burnout as a Dentist and Improve Physical and Mental Health?
To recover from dentist burnout you need to follow steps explained below.
Define the type of dentistry you want to practice. This provides a greater sense of control over your career while allowing you to provide better patient care and focus on work you find the most meaningful. It’s an essential ingredient in improving your job satisfaction.
Control your schedule. Fighting back against chronic stress requires finding a good work-life balance. Work to live, don’t live to work. The right combination of work, personal, and family time is critical.
Make time to exercise. Dentists can become so caught up in practice management and patient care that they forget to take care of themselves.
Don’t isolate. Spend time with your staff. Connect with other general dentists, both in your local area and those outside it. Engage with professionals in other specialties, including orthodontists, oral surgeons, endodontists, periodontists, and more.
How to Deal with Anxiety for Dental Professionals?
One of the leading causes of burnout for many dentists is anxiety. All people experience anxiety to some degree, but how do you prevent it from undermining your career satisfaction?
Make time for focused downtime. It can be meditation, prayer, or whatever you choose, but focused downtime allows you to connect deeply with yourself, reduce stress, and feel refreshed and renewed.
Get curious. Explore your interests in terms of dentistry. That might be new techniques and procedures, new evidence regarding oral microbiota, a new specialty, or something else entirely.
Build connections with your staff and your patients by genuinely listening and building trust. Think of your practice as a community, with both staff and patients as community members.
Say Goodbye to Burnout With This Masterclass
Dental burnout is a serious problem, but you can overcome it. Mastering the right skills, changing your mindset, and learning how to deal with occupational stress and the signs of burnout syndrome are all essential steps. This burnout masterclass is designed to provide dentists with the mental and emotional tools required to fight back against professional burnout, improve mental well-being, and achieve a better work-life balance.
Mastering Burnout Prevention with the 6% Methodology
Beating burnout is within reach when you have the know-how and tools. The most actionable tools for beating burnout can be found in The 6% Club, a groundbreaking, easy-to-apply methodology for achieving any goal, that was developed and designed by Dr. Michelle Rozen, aka, the Change Doctor. This strategy was developed based on Dr. Rozen’s extensive research and fieldwork on making real changes that stick and transform businesses and lives. The name of this methodology is based on Dr. Rozen’s jaw-dropping research finding that only 6% of people stick to their goals and reach their goals while the remaining 94% quickly give up. This methodology breaks down what those 6% do differently that gets them to the results and fulfilled dreams that they want for themselves. You can read more about the research here, and you can read more about The 6% Club here.
Here’s how to use it against burnout.
Initially, pause and take time for check in with yourself. The main problem with being burned out is being so burned out that you don’t even check in with yourself and realize it. All you focus on is just getting through the day.
Then, focus on setting specific and granular goals for doing things differently in order to feel less burned out in your practice and life. Avoid general goals such as “I want to reduce workplace stress.” According to my findings, specific goals, like “I will take 30 minutes each day, after lunch, to practice relaxation techniques,” are more likely to succeed.
The 6% Methodology is versatile, not only for overcoming burnout but also for building confidence, enhancing relationships, achieving goals, and making strategic decisions that change businesses and lives.
Remember, you are on a journey to feel better, do better and live better. The more tools you have, the more successful your journey will be. You got this!
How to Prevent Burnout and Emotional Exhaustion?
While burnout might be high in the dental industry, it’s not a given. You have the power to reset your brain, but it requires taking specific steps and developing effective coping strategies.
First, consider taking some time off. Getting out of the practice can give you a break and a chance to reset your physical and mental health.
Second, reengage with your purpose as a dentist. What was it that attracted you to the field in the first place? Find your passion once more or find a new goal.
Third, work smarter, not harder. Automate as many office processes as possible with the help of technology so you and your staff can focus on patient care, continuing professional development, and personal time.
Fourth, find social support to protect your emotional and mental health, while combatting work-related stress. This is particularly important for younger dentists with fewer professional connections, but even established dentists should review their support network and strengthen it. Other dentists, dental hygienists, and others can help with avoiding burnout.
Finally, celebrate your successes and learn from things that went wrong. Keep a journal or notebook to detail particularly challenging cases and outcomes, celebrate positive patient feedback, and investigate negative feedback to address underlying issues.
Other Professions With High Burnout Rates
Dentists aren’t the only professionals who face a high burnout risk. Nurses, retail workers, and social workers are 3 other careers with high burnout rates.
Besides them, marketing managers are often burned out because they constantly need to stay ahead of trends and meet sales targets.
The paralegals are other professionals who face a high burnout risk. The long hours, high stress, and inadequate help from superiors can often lead to paralegal burnout.
FAQ
There are a number of factors that can contribute to dentist burnout, including: long hours and demanding workloads, high levels of responsibility, and lack of control over work environment.
If you’re experiencing dentist burnout, the most important thing is to take steps to reduce your stress levels. Here are some tips:
- Take a break from work, if possible.
- Spend time with loved ones.
- Do things that you enjoy.