Beating burnout
Featured Products Promotional FeaturesPosted by: Dental Design 9th February 2024
The mental health of practitioners is always an important topic of discussion within dentistry, addressing a great issue that has plagued so many individuals in the field: burnout.
The World Health Organization has previously described burnout as an “occupational phenomenon” rather than a medical condition,[i] seen as a result of unsuccessfully managed chronic workplace stress.
Over the past few years, clinicians may well have succumbed to such exhaustion, leaving them drained, feeling negatively towards their role and less efficient in it, too. Finding ways to manage the pressures of dentistry and the emotional fatigue it may bring, and in turn fall back in love with the profession, is essential when the dental world begins to feel overwhelming.
Industry wide problems
Burnout can round the corner at any time, and it has become a growing issue within dentistry. This was true even before the Coronavirus pandemic, which may have only stoked the flames.
A 2019 study found that nearly 44% of its respondents felt that their level of stress was more than they could cope with, with the greatest reasons concerning regulation in dentistry, litigation and dissatisfied patients.[ii]Evidently, many dental professionals aren’t alone with this feeling. The odds are someone else in your practice may be experiencing these excessive pressures too.
Burnout is troubling for a number of reasons. Firstly, the health of dental professionals could be compromised as a result of their occupation. Burnout has been seen to consistently link with cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal pain and depressive symptoms.[iii] The aforementioned study found nearly one in five dental professionals had seriously considered committing suicide at some point in their life,[iv] which calls for greater support for clinicians in a high-pressure profession.
Patients may suffer too. A high amount of stress and musculoskeletal disorders among dental professionals are linked with work ability and productivity loss,[v] which could mean fewer individuals are treated over time, with potential errors to be made.
Striving for balance
Finding ways to alleviate burnout is often easier said than done. Clinicians may find it difficult to pull themselves out of a rut, or even feel that as a consequence of improving their own health, they have to let the growth of their practice stagnate. After all, doesn’t taking a step back – which could bring relaxation and rejuvenation – require less time with patients, who receive less care? In addition, simply pulling away doesn’t necessarily impact the daily challenges that cause burnout.
The first step to beating burnout is looking around at the situation and assessing what can be done. Talking to trusted professionals, friends and family can be essential for feeling support, as well as potentially brainstorming some possible solutions.[vi]
It’s then important to look at your day-to-day life and implement effective changes. Reclaiming time for yourself may be key to finding that ever-mystical work-life balance. Whilst it may feel like a thin line to tread, it could bring clinicians out of stressful environments and help to regain control over their everyday lives, as well as enhancing overall practice performance. This could mean strict boundaries are set on when work emails are addressed, or how much of weekends and evenings are spent reorganising notes.
Creating time in your week to do the things you love – be it spending time with friends and family, playing sports, or enjoying a hobby – may mean reducing your workload. To do so, the team that surrounds you could make the greatest difference.
Surround yourself with talent
Delegating tasks is essential to freeing up time for personal and professional growth. To do so, clinicians must surround themselves with a team that they trust, who also buy into their ethics and share similar professional goals. Assigning extra roles to others is not the same as evading responsibilities; instead, it creates a culture of collaboration, where the team pulls in one direction and becomes more efficient.[vii]
Honing this culture is key to building a happy team and a productive practice, with the opportunity to take on new ventures and grow a patient base as a result. It could also increase an individual’s capacity for brilliant work every day by alleviating burnout.
Understanding how to build a team that buys into your vision and allows you to better structure a work-life balance is possible with the Business and Mindset Mastery course from the IAS Academy. Led by marketing scientist and entrepreneur Dr Prav Solanki, the day’s training helps clinicians devise an actionable plan for practice and personal growth, including ways to create and achieve goals in all aspects of life. Dr Solanki also provides insight on business processes and how to engage patients, to better improve their care journey.
Healthcare professionals seem to experience higher rates of burnout than other members of the working public,vi and it is a serious issue in modern day dentistry. Reaching out to those around you and amongst your team for comfort, advice and help could not only see your everyday life improve, but your practice grow, too.
For more information on upcoming IAS Academy training courses, please visit
www.iasortho.com or call 01932 336470 (Press 1)
Dr Tif Qureshi founder and a clinical director of IAS Academy
Dr Tif Qureshi founder and a clinical director of IAS Academy, qualified from Kings College London in 1992. He is a Past President of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, an International faculty that provides mentored education for general dentists on a pathway from appropriate simple to comprehensive orthodontics.
Tif has a special interest in simple orthodontics and truly minimally invasive dentistry. He has committed his life’s work to empowering dentists to provide important alternative techniques. He offers a wide variety of treatments to many more patients, while always respecting the fundamental precepts of orthodontics.
Tif also pioneered the concept of Progressive Smile Design through Alignment, Bleaching, Bonding – a course that combines tooth alignment, composite bonding and teeth whitening to produce superior smiles using techniques with the absolute minimum of invasiveness available today.
An experienced teacher in the Dahl concept, Tif shows how this technique is used to plan tooth alignment and minimise invasive dentistry in the development of a beautiful smile.
Tif now lectures and published scientific articles internationally.
[i] World Health Organization, (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases
[ii] Collin, V., Toon, M., O’Selmo, E., Reynolds, L., & Whitehead, P. (2019). A survey of stress, burnout and well-being in UK dentists. British dental journal, 226(1), 40-49.
[iii] Salvagioni, D. A. J., Melanda, F. N., Mesas, A. E., González, A. D., Gabani, F. L., & Andrade, S. M. D. (2017). Physical, psychological and occupational consequences of job burnout: A systematic review of prospective studies. PloS one, 12(10), e0185781.
[iv] Im, G. (2019). More than half of dentists say stress is affecting their practice. Br. Dent. J, 226(7).
[v] Pejčić, N., Petrović, V., Ilić-Dimitrijević, I., Jakovljević, A., Nikodijević-Latinović, A., Petrović, R., & Perunović, N. (2021). Occupational stress among dental professionals. Balkan Journal of Dental Medicine, 25(2), 67-72.
[vi] Raypole, C., Weatherspoon, D., (2023). Burnout Recovery: 11 Strategies to Help You Reset. Healthline. (Online) Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/burnout-recovery [Accessed December 2023]
[vii] Amdur, E., (2022). Delegating Part II: Seven Benefits Of Delegating. Forbes. (Online) Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/eliamdur/2022/11/08/delegating-part-ii-seven-benefits-of-delegating/ [Accessed December 2023]
