In January, I spoke about shifting your energy to shift your burnout at the Rocky Mountain Dental Convention (RMDC) 2024. Here is an overview of the discussion, as featured in the corresponding issue of the MDDS Articulator magazine (page 14.)

Do you ever feel burnt out by burnout?

The word is everywhere these days. I’ll admit, as someone who loves helping others reduce burnout, even I sometimes get sick of hearing it. There’s a reason this word gets so over-abundantly used though. Burnout is currently the pervasive problem that we, as a profession, still struggle to solve.

During my decade in practice in the early 2000’s, no one talked about burnout in any career. Looking back, I now see that I was burnt out for 7 of my 10 years in practice. Because no one discussed burnout, I didn’t know what it was; and I simply thought I hated my career. Eventually, the pain I experienced was too big, and I had to quit dentistry.

Fast forward 8 years after quitting, and I began to study burnout in 2019. As I researched for my first ever presentation on burnout for the RMDC, the lightbulb went on: all those years that I thought I hated my work, I was actually severely burnt out. That recognition left me wondering… If I’d had the resources, could I have fixed my burnout instead of leaving my entire profession?

Today I have no regrets for my choices, but this very question consistently drives me to understand how you can get real about your career frustrations, so you can create the right solutions for yourself.

Despite all the awareness and resources we have to treat burnout today, why is burnout still plaguing so many people?

We’re stuck in burnout because we mainly focus on treating our pain from the outside-in, instead of the inside-out.

Standard burnout treatment plans consist of self-care in the form of bubble baths and massages. We learn that we should prioritize exercise and healthy eating. And if you really want to re-energize your zest for dentistry, you should buy a practice, so you can control everything. Or you should take more CE to do more of the procedures you love.

Don’t get me wrong. These burnout treatment strategies are important and effective– to an extent. The missing link, though, is addressing the world of experiences that you create inside your head. The difference between people who are burnt out and those who aren’t, is your energy or, in other words, your perspective.

If you want to get to the root of the problem, you must begin addressing how your own beliefs and attitudes create your reality.

Without that, these treatments are all band-aids on the broken leg of burnout. You obediently pursue them, and then you wonder why you remain fried, despite following “the plan.”

In the past five years, I’ve observed a common trend that burnt out dental professionals have in common: we genuinely care for others, we love to fix problems, and we naturally put others first. Let’s call us Compassionate Caretakers.

While these qualities are good and noble, they can also lead to people-pleasing, perfectionism, and self-sacrifice. But it’s not always as selfless as it seems on the surface. We are motivated to help others, so they will trust us, respect us, and even like us. Our self-worth often depends on receiving gratitude from others, so we strive to always be the heroes to our patients and team. There is an underlying reward in there for us.

The problem is that in dentistry, patient complaints and treatment “failures” often overshadow appreciation and praise. Our buckets aren’t getting filled, and our commitment to helping others becomes unsustainable as this relentless pursuit for validation and safety creates a constant weight on our shoulders (aka burnout!)

This is how some of us have learned we need to show up in the world. But there’s hope. While it’s not easy to change your energy and thinking patterns, it is possible– and worth it!

What’s the solution?

I’ve painted the picture of the patterning that creates most of the burnout I see in dental professionals. Now let’s look at those dental professionals who rarely get burnt out. They seem more engaged by their work and actually enjoy the daily challenges of dentistry. These Solution Seekers don’t care any less than the Compassionate Caretakers, but they simply have a different perception of their world.

If the Compassionate Caretaker will go to any lengths to make sure the other person wins (even if out of obligation,) the Solution Seeker believes in the true win-win. They recognize that patients can only win if they, themselves, win too. This manifests as an ability to create healthy boundaries– not just boundaries to protect from other people, but also boundaries to protect from their own brains. Solution Seekers also commit to giving their best, but in the process, they don’t own other people’s problems the way Compassionate Caretakers do. They trust that problems have solutions, so they don’t get bogged down by these same burdens. They learn from them and successfully “let it go.”

Compassionate Caretakers can learn to be Solution Seekers while maintaining their compassion.

It begins with awareness. Understanding your thinking patterns and your stress allows you to consciously decide to reframe your beliefs into new, productive ideas. This reframe takes a lot of practice, but remember that you are unlearning years of conditioning. And you can do it! If you can go from being terrified by giving your first inferior alveolar block to feeling like it’s second nature, then you have living proof that you can change your mind.

As you practice changing your perspective, you will begin to realize that many of your worries have win-win solutions. With your own brain on your side, it becomes easier to fix the external burnout triggers. If you find yourself working too many hours, having no control over your environment, struggling to maintain a good team, and worrying about how patients are more difficult in a post-Covid world; this energy shift will allow you to fix these headaches without the guilt.

When you give yourself the permission to ask for what you want, you’ll give yourself the power to stop your cycle of self-sacrifice that always puts others first. You’ll break the very cycle that’s bringing you down.

Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean you will neglect others.

Many of us were taught in life that if we put ourselves first, then we are selfish, bad people. That thinking creates a world where there can only be one winner. What if instead we choose to live in a win-win world. Imagine a world where winning looks different from what we were taught?

When you maintain healthy expectations for yourself and release the need to be the hero, you’ll gain the freedom to serve others without carrying around their burdens. There’s a fine line between responsibility and burden, and maintaining that line is the key.

Do you want to live in a win-lose world that requires you to carry the burdens of others while sacrificing your own well-being? Or do you want to create a win-win reality that allows you to better help others while you create healthy boundaries, practice self-compassion, and care for yourself? The choice is yours.