When I look back on my career in dentistry, the parts I loved the most were networking and creating relationships with other dentists. Working in private practice was not that fulfilling for me. I always felt burdened, like I couldn’t do enough to please my patients. That left me feeling empty and unappreciated. But when I went to the Pankey Institute to try to save my career, I absolutely loved the learning environment and the friends I made. When I got involved in the local dental society, I loved the sense of community that brought. Now that I am hosting...
In January of 2018 I started a new series of interviews titled Celebrating New Beginnings. Each week I featured a dentist or hygienist who had an innovative dental career or made a career transition outside of the traditional roles in private practice. It was really fun to highlight how other dental professionals were finding career happiness. Life got in the way, and I had to shift gears for a bit, but now we are back! I often focus on dentist career changes, and today I’m excited to highlight a hygienist’s career change. Welcome my guest, Amy. Amy grew up in...
Welcome to my guest blogger, Dr. Michelle Mudge-Riley! Dr. Mudge-Riley is a physician, an entrepreneur, and founder of Physicians Helping Physicians. She runs multiple businesses and has spent over 15 years assisting physicians with career strategy. In a 2010 book that she co-authored, Physicians in Transition, she was called the “Doctor’s Doctor” because of her success in working with other doctors. Dr. Michelle Mudge-Riley is here to share her knowledge to help you in your search for non-traditional careers for dentists. She is also my co-host for the upcoming FREE Dentist Career Change Masterclass and the big NEXT Dentist Conference...
How much did you know about dentistry before you chose it as your forever career? If you’re like me, not much. Many of us interviewed a few dentists, spent a handful of afternoons shadowing them, or just found teeth interesting as patients. We chose dentistry based on a somewhat superficial impression of the work involved. You can see how easy it would be get into the career and then realize it’s totally wrong for us. Imagine if you did that with your romantic relationships. Imagine marrying someone after you’ve only met for coffee 5 times. It would be kind of...
Why does it always take a big shake-up in life to get our attention? We often go through life on auto-pilot, making decisions and taking actions that we think will give us the life we want. Over time we get so caught up in our routine, that we don’t even think about what our priorities are anymore. We wake up, go to the work we chose, often wishing it were Saturday. Once the day gets going, things might be fine, but how inspired and motivated are we, really? We try. We use the New Year, whether that’s in January or...
In my last post, a Lolabees Friend shared a wonderfully thoughtful comment that got me thinking about a lot of things. One thing in particular stood out. At the close, he said: All I can say at this moment — 4 weeks after taking a break from dentistry — is that just now I am beginning to feel like I can take a breath and relax. Really live. Pursue some interests I truly have a passion for. And for the first time in a long time, say “I really don’t care.” His experience is not surprising at all. What strikes...
