Whether you’ve been a dentist for 3 months, 3 years or 13 years, I strongly suspect that your reality of dentistry may not be what you signed up for. What’s more, it’s probably not the reality that you present to everyone else around you.

Many people, especially our patients, have a perception that we have a great time of it- a straight forward job, plenty of money, nice car, new house, and it all comes easily.
I admit that my perception was pretty much the same when I first became a dentist.
In my mind, dentistry was a respected profession where patients would be interested in looking after their teeth and would take on the advice that I discussed with them. I would get to know them well and the work would be varied and well-rewarded. Sadly, for me and many of us, this was not the reality.
In reality, for a time, I felt like I was battling with most of my patients, and frustrated when they didn’t care. I may as well have been ‘pressing the repeat button’ with the advice I was giving, as I watched that blank expression form on their faces as they stopped listening and the roll of their eyes.

Sound familiar?

For a long time, I thought it was just me, I thought everyone else was enjoying practising dentistry. It wasn’t until I started speaking to other dentists about my experience that I found out they felt the same. The more I talked to others, the more I realised it was quite a common experience, but I was curious to know just how common it was.
I knew the British Dental Association (BDA) had published a piece of research in 2019, called ‘A survey of stress, burnout and well-being in UK dentists’, but with only 23 participants, the numbers were small. Whilst I recognised all the issues it highlighted, I felt drawn to find out how many others in my profession had had the same experience as me. So in March 2020, I decided to ask. I posted out a short survey of my own on social media, using LinkedIn and several dentist-focussed Facebook pages to gather more information.

My Social Media Survey

So what did I find?
I received 272 responses to my survey, with the majority confirming my experience of dentistry.
Similar to the BDA study, I found that despite showing up in various guises and being described in many different ways, stress, anxiety and overwhelm are at the core of much of the distress felt by the majority of us.

So what is stress?
Stress is our response to what is happening around us, especially when we feel threatened by it or unable to control it. We can feel it as our heart rate quickens, our breathing becomes shallow and we become irritated and short-tempered at those around us. If you are anything like I was, there’s the added irritation of feeling frustrated by this, which only makes it worse!!
I found that the stress I thought was caused by my working day crept into the rest of my life as well. Stressful days continued into stressful or flaked out evenings, as I was so worn out from getting through my day. My relationships with family and friends weren’t great either, as I just couldn’t summon the energy to get out of my head. Judging from the results of the survey, I wasn’t the only one who had felt this way.

Survey Results
Although there were several issues raised, the challenges highlighted in the survey covered 3 main areas.
These were:
– Patients, their expectations and their attitude towards us,
– The system, its limitations and demands
– Colleagues, their behaviour and effect on us

It’s interesting to note that although these issues were presented as a list of complaints about things that were simply not working for dentists, they were things that, on the face of it, seemed to be outside of their control.

From my perspective, this focus on external factors is reflective of a deeper sense of powerlessness amongst dentists. This is not surprising when we appreciate that we are working in a system that not only can impose strict regulations and harsh penalties but also limits our input and thus, our sense of control.
This feeling of powerlessness weaves itself through every aspect of our professional lives. From the NHS and GDC to the CQC and BDA, we are held accountable to standards and regulations that we have limited say in. Unsurprisingly, it is this feeling of powerlessness that determines our response to our professional life, and the inevitable sense of stress and overwhelm that accompanies it.

However, there is an alternative to this
When we choose to change our perspective from powerless to powerful, we also change the way we feel. This is what I have done for myself and I work with others to do the same. I went from resenting my job and being desperate to leave dentistry, to enjoying clinical dentistry as part of my life and being much happier all round.

Is this something you need to do for yourself? Are you resenting dentistry and day dreaming of something better? Do you want to change this by improving your experience of dentistry and of the rest of your life?