Getting burnt out

[kc3521]

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Hi,

I’ve been practicing for just one year but I’m getting extremely burnt out and starting to really dislike dentistry. Having to speak to patients all day is starting to become a chore. Any advice?

Thanks.

 

[chiangmai2015]

A general dentist's lifestyle is hard. Have you considered specializing? That's one way to solve the problem. For endo speciality, you will see less than half the amount you see currently.

Another way is to cut down your work hours and replenish your soul by doing things you enjoy. At the end of the day, being a dentist is just a way to make a living. Not a lot of people enjoy their jobs--they just do it for the money.

 

[redchesus]

I feel you. It might be just my population (HCOL urban center) but I feel like patients have gotten meaner and more "Karen-y" since pandemic started. It's like they take out all their Covid stress on us. And of course the whole insurance situation which patients think is our fault.
I decided to cut my hours down and working on more of a work-life balance.

 

[charlestweed]

At the end of the day, being a dentist is just a way to make a living. Not a lot of people enjoy their jobs--they just do it for the money.

Very True!

 

[charlestweed]

Hi,

I’ve been practicing for just one year but I’m getting extremely burnt out and starting to really dislike dentistry. Having to speak to patients all day is starting to become a chore. Any advice?

Thanks.

I don’t like talking to the patients either. I am an introvert person. I usually let my staff do most of the talking for me. I’d much rather use my time to perform the procedures to avoid being behind and getting complaints from other patients. I try to avoid using technical terms to confuse the patients. To keep the conversation as short as possible, I use the videos and pictures, that I downloaded and saved on my phone, to help the patients understand me better.

Such as this


Or this

 

[ddsjc2014]

Hi,

I’ve been practicing for just one year but I’m getting extremely burnt out and starting to really dislike dentistry. Having to speak to patients all day is starting to become a chore. Any advice?

Thanks.

That is exactly why I applied Dental Anesthesiology specialty.

 

[DrJeff]

So much of a patient's perception of how "good" you are as a dentist, which often translates into how many of their family and friends they will tell to go see you, can be attributed to the following 2 things. #1 - Are you a "nice" person when treating them (which often has a significant component based on your interpersonal communication skills with them as the patient and you and your staff infront of them as the patient and #2 - "Did it hurt?" If you can carry on a conversation and keep them comfortable, chances are in the eyes of your patients you will be a "good" dentist.

So learning to communicate with your patients, even if it's in a simple way like explaining what will happen next (I.E. you'll feel some air and water squirting around and hear a whistling sound when the highspeed is running, you may smell something like nail polish remover/paint thinner when you're suing bonding agent, you will feel me shaking your lip if you do that during an injection, etc) will help greatly, and if you are an introvert by nature (I am as well) just having a basic conversation, in realatively simple terms, about what you will be doing as well as what your patients may feel/smell/etc during the procedure is a realtively easy way to talk with them, about something that after a while becomes very easy, even for an introverted person, to talk about. Basically, once any diagnostic and treatment conversations are done with my patients, I just talk about the procedure experience, the weather, and maybe some little tidbit I may have noticed about my patient (such as this time of year if I am treating a school aged patient I ask "How's the new school year going?") and it's fairly easy to stay conversational involved with my patients, which they seem to like.

The other factor with burnout, is you need to find something to manage your mental stresses that this profession often brings. Some folks its exercise, some it's crafting, some it's reading/listening to podcasts, whatever it is, and make sure that that outlet is a regaular part of your daily schedule to allow your brain to relax a bit. Not having an outlet is a recipe for burnout for sure

 

[Chief's Pineapple]

So much of a patient's perception of how "good" you are as a dentist, which often translates into how many of their family and friends they will tell to go see you, can be attributed to the following 2 things. #1 - Are you a "nice" person when treating them (which often has a significant component based on your interpersonal communication skills with them as the patient and you and your staff infront of them as the patient and #2 - "Did it hurt?" If you can carry on a conversation and keep them comfortable, chances are in the eyes of your patients you will be a "good" dentist.

I can totally see this. One thing I've learned working in hospitals over the years is that patients will judge a surgeon on how good he or she is on their dressings. No, really. It doesn't matter how skilled the surgeon is on their hand skills and effective patient outcomes. If you place the dressings on in a way in which they don't look "aesthetically pleasing", the patient will bring it up in a follow-up appointment.

I'm sure for dentists, that if you have the best hand skills in your town, but you have the bedside manner of a CPR manikin, you probably won't be winning many people over, I think.

The other factor with burnout, is you need to find something to manage your mental stresses that this profession often brings. Some folks its exercise, some it's crafting, some it's reading/listening to podcasts, whatever it is, and make sure that that outlet is a regaular part of your daily schedule to allow your brain to relax a bit. Not having an outlet is a recipe for burnout for sure

Just to add to this, I think it's important to realize that stress relief is an active process; watching Netflix on the couch isn't actually helpful. Meditation, yoga, massage therapy, and exercise are good. Source (read the last paragraph; it's based on the book The Obesity Code by Jason Fung, MD, who clears myths about diet, calorie counting, losing weight, etc., and I find it to be a very inspirational book).

 

[BidingMyTime]

As a non-dentist, reading this discussing on communication, I have to share my experience from several years ago, of taking my 3 year old to a pediatric dentist, on referral from our family dentist. After the examination, there were 4 of us, me, the assistant/ hygienist, my child, and the dentist present, and the dentist started talking to the assistant/hygienist telling her to "tell the mom this......and this....and this." and between each "....." the assistant/hygienist would repeat the exact same thing the dentist had said, which of course, I had already heard since I was standing right next to him. The whole thing was extremely bizarre, and yeah, I didn't go back. The dentist talking to me directly in a robotic fashion would have been better than this pretending I wasn't there and that the assistant/hygienist was needed to pass on the message.
I hope this encourages you, that however you are communicating, you aren't as bad as this dentist was.

 

[yappy]

Hi,

I’ve been practicing for just one year but I’m getting extremely burnt out and starting to really dislike dentistry. Having to speak to patients all day is starting to become a chore. Any advice?

Thanks.

Finding a work setting that challenged me, coworkers that I enjoyed being around, and an efficient non-clinical department helped me avoid burn out.

You mentioned it's a "chore" to speak to patient's all day. IMO one indication that your office systems are poor are when you find yourself having to talk/answer a lot of questions. Developing systems within your office can make your appointments go much smoother. As a comparison, do you remember in dental school when you were the point-of-contact for everything (scheduling, billing, patient care)? That is the opposite of what you should do in the real world. It cannot all fall on your shoulders. Try to systematize and delegate everything you can, especially if it's non-clinical. Lastly, I have found that my day to day interactions with patients were easier, and I had less volume, in offices that tended to take few(er) insurances.

It may not be dentistry, maybe it's just your job?

 

[yappy]

That is exactly why I applied Dental Anesthesiology specialty.

lol. You must not know much about anesthesia. They talk to patient's a ton... about the same thing, over and over and over again. It's a really important part of their job.

 

[702]

lol. You must not know much about anesthesia. They talk to patient's a ton... about the same thing, over and over and over again. It's a really important part of their job.

The pre-op eval is 10 min and very straightforward. There’re no complicated questions and explanation of different treatment plans and what is covered by insurance, etc.

 

[yappy]

The pre-op eval is 10 min and very straightforward. There’re no complicated questions and explanation of different treatment plans and what is covered by insurance, etc.

I spend much less than 10 minutes talking to most of my patients. The anesthetist I use usually takes longer than 10 to get consent and does all his own evaluations. It's not uncommon for patient's to want to discuss concerns they have about patient safety and how their medications may interfere with the anesthesia plan. Providing reassurance and emotional support to patients who are fearful seems to be a big part of the job.