AME: Burnout in Dentistry

Recently I got a terrific query from a dental student. I decided to put it in the Very Dental Facebook group for discussion and here are some of the answers we got! "For my final in our program I’m doing an academic enquiry/ presentation on high rates of burnout in dentistry. As a dentist have you ever felt burned out? If so what did you do to overcome it? If you haven’t, why do you think that is? If you were to give advice to young students/dentists on how to manage a career in dentistry and to avoid burnout what would it be." One answer worth highlighting was from Dr. Deanna Snitzer: 1) the faster you learn to stop caring about the teeth more than the patient cares about them the better. 2) find the type of work you like to do: do more of that 3) don’t tolerate people treating you like shit. (Patients, staff, anyone really). No one is irreplaceable in your life but you.. not a patient, not a hygienist, not anyone. 4) delegate. If there’s something you don’t like to do - allow someone else to take care of that for you. This may be professional or personal.  5) you can’t (and shouldn’t) be everyone’s dentist. 6) if you ask 10 dentists the best way to do something you’ll get 11 answers. Find a way that works for you and do it that way. 7) you’ll never regret firing someone - you’ll just regret not doing it sooner. This applies to basically anyone in your life…  8 ) take vacations. Believe it or not people will survive if you’re gone for a few days. 9) “Dentist”  is what you do for a living. It isn’t WHO YOU ARE. Spend equal amounts of energy developing your life outside your office as you spend inside it. 10) don’t forget they’re really just teeth. Pretty much no one is dying in our chair. Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy," "Papa Randy" or "Lipscomb!" The Very Dental Podcast network is and will remain free to download. If you’d like to support the shows you love at Very Dental then show a little love to the people that support us! -- Crazy Dental has everything you need from cotton rolls to equipment and everything in between and the best prices you’ll find anywhere! If you head over to verydentalpodcast.com/crazy and use coupon code “VERYDENTAL10” you’ll get another 10% off your order! Go save yourself some money and support the show all at the same time! -- The Wonderist Agency is basically a one stop shop for marketing your practice and your brand. From logo redesign to a full service marketing plan, the folks at Wonderist have you covered! Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/wonderist! -- Enova Illumination makes the very best in loupes and headlights, including their new ergonomic angled prism loupes! They also distribute loupe mounted cameras and even the amazing line of Zumax microscopes! If you want to help out the podcast while upping your magnification and headlight game, you need to head over to verydentalpodcast.com/enova to see their whole line of products! -- CAD-Ray offers the best service on a wide variety of digital scanners, printers, mills and even  their very own browser based design software, Clinux! CAD-Ray has been a huge supporter of the Very Dental Podcast Network and I can tell you that you’ll get no better service on everything digital dentistry than the folks from CAD-Ray. Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/CADRay!