The Burnout Monster Is Lurking, I See It!
Professional burnout is an epidemic! According to a recent Forbes article, research shows that job burnout affects around 66% of the American workforce. This is an all-time high!
Companies across all industries are recognizing the impact on their business, including higher absenteeism, weaker performance, poorer customer service, and reduced efficiency. It is one of the most prevalent work-related problems in our society today.
Who is hovering near the top of the list? You guessed it: dentists! The ADA reported that 82% of dentists experienced “major” stress in 2024.
Recognizing Dental Burnout
Why does this monster haunt dentists so often? Simple as it may sound, it is the human body’s response to chronic stress. Factors that dentists deal with daily, such as managing and leading a team, paying off debt, keeping patients happy and healthy, maintaining a profitable practice, preventing malpractice, and fighting managed care, all contribute to constant stress.
Dentists not only deal with these stresses during office hours but also spend their free time thinking about or managing them, which means family time, sleep, vacations, and exercise time suffer. This is the definition of chronic stress. Over time, the monster creeps in, slowly but surely, and does its damage.
Its effects are subtle in the first stages: fatigue, anxiety, unhappiness, frustration, lack of patience, insomnia, and headaches. Eventually, however, it manifests into depression, high blood pressure, heart attacks, drug or alcohol abuse, clinical mistakes, severe cynicism, suicide, and divorce. It can kill a practice and a career, and take a devastating toll on all areas of your life.
An Ounce of Prevention
Being aware of the problem is the first step to prevention. Learning to manage stress before it starts wreaking havoc is the best way to prevent burnout.
So how do you do this? Get help! Most dental burnout results from dentists trying to do it all: believing they can deliver state-of-the-art, high-quality dentistry while also being a super boss, charismatic leader, a successful COO, CFO, and HR Director in a new economic environment of intense competition, managed care, and constant change.
Investing in team building, leadership training, and best-practice business systems will significantly reduce your stress. It is also the fastest way to practice success and financial freedom.
Having been in dentistry for almost 40 years, I have seen dental burnout do its damage way too often. Do not let the burnout monster destroy your love for dentistry, your ability to help others, your time with family, your marriage, or your health. Start prevention now!
