From Burnout to Balance: Reclaiming Your Energy and Purpose in Dentistry

Again, when we address it at the beginning or when we're first seeing those signs, it's a much smaller problem versus if we're ignoring it and it adds up, it becomes a much bigger problem. But when we develop those habits, it becomes a lot easier during the busy days when our schedule is crazy to slow down and just pay attention to our body and prioritize our health over. go go go and it could be both i mean we we can still listen to our body and also take care of our patients welcome to austin texas and welcome to the Phil Klein dental podcast today's episode hits close to home for so many dental professionals We're talking about burnout in the dental practice. It's a topic that's often brushed aside until it's too late, when the exhaustion, frustration, and emotional drain start affecting not just your career, but your personal life too. We'll be discussing how to recognize the early signs of burnout, what it can do to your overall well-being, and how to manage that constant tug-of-war between a strong work ethic and the need for balance in your life. Our guest today knows this story firsthand. Caitlin Parsons is a registered dental hygienist who hit a wall early in her career, the kind of burnout that forces you to stop and reevaluate everything. Out of that experience came the Aligned Hygienist. a company she founded to help dental professionals manage stress and prevent burnout through ergonomics, yoga therapy, and mindful movement. Caitlin's journey is an inspiring reminder that taking care of yourself isn't a luxury. It's essential to your longevity in this profession. So if you've ever felt that creeping sense of fatigue or questioned how long you can keep up the pace, this episode is for you. Before we bring in our guest, I do want to say that if you're enjoying these episodes and want to support the show, please follow us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You'll be the first to know about our new releases, and our entire production team will really appreciate it. Caitlin, thanks for being on the show. Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. You know, it's interesting, Caitlin, the topic of burnout is really a hot topic among dental professionals, and that's because it's so relevant to our profession. We're juggling a lot of different tasks during the day. We have a lot of responsibility, not only to the patient, but to our employees, to our team members, to our family. It builds up after a while, the stress to manage all of this stuff. And that's why it's important to identify burnout early and recognize it and see how we could stave it off. or even eliminate it completely from our lives so that we could live and work in a more harmonious environment. So having said that, what are some of the most common signs of burnout you've seen among dental professionals and how can someone recognize them early on? Yeah, to your point, I feel like burnout is a really hot topic now. And it's a great thing because I'm passionate about talking about it. But it is unfortunate because it does affect so many dental professionals. And there really are multiple different reasons or signs for burnout. So mental and emotional exhaustion, especially in dentistry, are really common. Physical pain. irritability, feeling disconnected from your body, from the work that you're doing, from your patients, feeling checked out or like numb out, numbing out at the end of the day. Just a loss of enthusiasm, excitement, motivation. It can affect our sleep, we know, and muscle tension and so many other things. But those are just some of the signs. And as far as How can someone recognize them early? Just paying attention to our body, making sure that we're taking care of ourselves and we're not just go, go, go and on the grind. I think that's where we stop listening to our bodies because we're paying attention to our patients, which we obviously want to do, but we're paying attention to our patients and production and our schedule over our own body and compromising our own health. We're just slowing down and listening to, I'm really tired today, maybe in... Instead of doing X, Y, and Z this weekend, I'm going to take care of myself. Now, do you think it's normal for at some point in the day for a certain amount of time for a dental hygienist or a dental assistant or a dentist to be doing the thing they're doing in their office, but not really connecting to what they're doing? Almost like they're doing it robotically. They're going through the motions. Now, I know if a dentist is doing a very specific... surgical procedure like placing an implant he or she better be pretty focused on what they're doing but there are certain things that we do you know routinely um is is feeling that robotic going through the motions kind of thing a sign that you're going into burnout or is that something that we all do normally to some extent in our practice that's a good question i I think it depends on the person. So in what we're doing, how often that comes up, if we're spending the majority of our day in robot mode and just going through the motions and there's no passion, there's no excitement behind what we're doing, that is definitely a sign. But if we're, you know, checking in, checking out, there's part of the hygiene visit where I... am just in the zone and I am doing my thing and kind of more robot mode and kind of conserving my energy. But then it like I fill my cup again and my excitement comes back. So I think it just depends on how long that's there. Is it there all the time? And what kind of personality are you? Did you have that excitement before? And now it's dropped. Before we continue with our guest, a big shout out to GC America. A leader in dental materials, GC is all about minimally invasive dentistry, preserving natural tooth structure and helping to keep it healthy long after the restoration is placed. That's where glass onomer technology shines, and GC's new glass hybrid, Equiforte HT, fits right in. It chemically fuses with the tooth for strong, long-lasting, aesthetic results. It's fast, packable, moisture-tolerant, and requires no bonding or conditioning. Plus, it delivers continuous fluoride protection. Yeah, so it varies. And it also varies, I guess, on the kind of patient you're seeing. I know when I practiced endodontics, a lot of times my dental assistants were spacing out because, you know... There's a long period of time where the doctor is instrumenting. We did a lot of hand instrumenting back then. And the assistant was kind of thinking about whatever they did over the weekend. I'm sure their mind was elsewhere. But as a practitioner, you know, I would get excited about seeing some patients because I just like the patient and then some patients not so excited. So I guess it depends on the patient too. But how does burnout in dentistry differ from what professionals in other healthcare fields experience? I mean, if we think about it, we're working on such a specific area of the mouth and we are typically it requires precision in everything that we're doing. There's a lot of time pressure. And of course, we see that in health care in general. But then there's the dentistry's kind of demands with production and schedule expectations that I think is a little different than we see in health care. And of course. dentistry compared to healthcare there's a lot of small business ownership that makes it really different than traditional And I think that's a really good point because in other healthcare fields, the physician most likely works for a larger operation that has staff that takes care of all the business necessities to run it. There's an operations person, HR person. I mean, just think about the smaller office, the dental practice that wants to keep their costs down. I mean, I talked to dentists that are, it's just the man and his wife. You know, he's the prosthodontist and she's the office manager and she's the office assistant. And they hire one person here and there to come in for certain procedures. And then regulatory, OSHA, infection control. You know, there's staff for this in other healthcare professions. And when you add that into the microcosm of how specific dentistry is, I mean, we work in a world of millimeters and sometimes half millimeters. So it's pretty precise. What do you say to someone who's really trying to keep their cost down and they're kind of absorbing all of these tasks in addition to all of their clinical dentistry? Does that lead to burnout much faster and what should they do about it? I feel for dentists. That's something that as a hygienist, I know there's a big kind of battle in some areas with dentists versus hygienists, but I really have so much respect for dentists and practice owners for so many of the reasons that you said. When we think about healthcare versus dentistry, we don't have even HR in dental offices, never mind all of the other things that they have to deal with and manage. But dealing with the people and people being sick and the burnout being high and team retention is low. So I think that's something that a lot of dentists and office owners really struggle with. I forget your even original question. The question was that went along with what I mentioned is because they're absorbing all of these tasks, what can you actually do about it? I mean, you could take, you know, a course or a class or listen to a speaker about reducing stress in your office and doing things. But maybe you have some advice for the young dentist who's coming out or maybe someone who's early in their career so that they understand that. They could only absorb so many things in so many different areas of running a business than also doing the clinical. So what do you suggest to them? Probably a lot of things depending on where they're at, but having systems and protocols in place for you and your team are super important. So you're not doing all of the tasks, but more so they're delegated. But even more than that, that as a hygienist, I know what is expected of me. It's really clear what our systems are and it's more of a well-oiled machine. I think that's one piece that's really important. Like I said, delegating. and investing in your team is really important, whether we're talking about just their health and well-being, but also helping them continue to grow and making them excited for growth in their position. I mean, we need to have like a psychologist here. We need a... We need an accounting guy. Yeah, we need a whole team. So I didn't mean to throw it because it's not an easy question I asked you. And by the way, to our listeners, Caitlin has no idea what I'm asking her. So she had no time to prepare for this. But I mean, these are the things that lead to burnout. We did talk about offline about listening to the quiet voice within. Okay, what do you mean by listening to the quiet voice within when it comes to a busy dental practice where burnout could be on the horizon? Well, we can describe our quiet voice within as our intuition, right? But it's also just listening to our bodies, especially when it comes to pain, when it comes to stress, when it comes to burnout. We have so many signs that our body and signals that our body is sending us that we often just push down, right? That exhaustion, feeling more irritable, all of those things that if we keep pushing them down. we're quieting that voice. We're just disconnected from ourselves and everything really piles up. There was actually a really cool study. It was a study based on yoga therapy. So using yoga therapy for six sessions in a row, and this was just for a general group. It was mostly for lower back pain, but so there was better back pain, better back function. But what I liked is there was more self-awareness and self. pain efficacy in the yoga group because they were more self-aware so a yoga group that yoga group knew knows now how to take care of themselves and how to listen to those subtle signs and symptoms that come up and again when we address it at the beginning or when we're first seeing those signs it's a much smaller problem versus if we're ignoring it and it adds up it becomes a much bigger problem And we're so busy in dentistry. I'm not saying this is easy, but when we develop those habits, it becomes a lot easier during the busy days when our schedule is crazy to slow down and just pay attention to our body and prioritize our health over. Go, go, go. And it could be both. I mean, we can still listen to our body and also take care of our patients. Yeah. Do you think that having a dentist that typically works five busy days a week, should that dentist like literally just cut a half day off and say we're closed during this period of time? I mean, do dentists still work five full days? I was just going to say, should we work five full clinical days? That is a lot on our bodies, our stress levels. It is a lot to deliver care for five full days a week. I did it. I did five and six days at the beginning of my career. It led to pain. It led to burnout. And it led to me really ignoring my health. So I would really recommend, no matter who you are, finding time. And of course, we all have financial needs in different ways. We go through different seasons of our lives. But I think with the physical and mental demands of dentistry, we should strongly consider reducing the amount that we're working, whether that's a half day and maybe your team keeps working, but you're not seeing patients and you're working more, you know, admin stuff or the other stuff that needs to get done. Yeah, that's a very good, that's a very good suggestion. We'll be getting right back to our guest in a second, but first, if you're on the lookout for a versatile material that serves as both a protective liner for composites and is ideal for direct and indirect pulp capping, let me introduce you to Theraquel LC from Bisco. Its unique hydrophilic resin-modified calcium silicate formulation provides a strong, stable liner that reduces post-op sensitivity. It's radiopaque and incredibly easy to apply. Once light-cured, Theracal LC is ready for use with any bonding technique. What's even better... TheraCal LC is non-soluble, meaning it won't wash out over time. Plus, it promotes calcium release, which supports secondary dentin bridge formation, and that's perfect for those tricky pulp exposures. When you're working deep in a tooth prep, you want reliable protection for the dental pulpal complex. You want TheraCal LC. a top choice among independent evaluators and thousands of dental clinicians. For more information on Bisco's full line of pulp protection products, head on over to Bisco.com. Some of us are very goal-oriented. We're very driven. You know, we're type A personality. And we feel that we're kind of unbreakable and not really vulnerable to some of the typical burnout ramifications that will come down the road because we're tough and we're young. grin and bear it. But I think it's important for us all to think about the reality of burnout and that it is lurking on the other side of the door. And unless we're careful with how we proceed, we are putting ourselves at risk at being subjected to the throes of a pretty nasty condition where you just feel, you know, detached. You start to feel detached and depressed and everything else. And it kind of... builds. So you have to be careful and be cautious as you proceed to some extent, not to be an alarmist, not to be somebody who's risk averse, but just someone who's sensible and understands when you're just driving your motor too hard and pull back to take time to strengthen our body and stay in shape through yoga, weightlifting, cardio, playing a sport, whatever it is. And this, of course, not only helps us physically, but also helps our emotional state. And it's a great preventative way to stave off burnout, both emotionally and physically. I 100% agree. We really in dentistry need to be proactive about our health and not wait until it gets so bad that we have to start going to doctor's appointments and chiropractors just to get ourselves out of pain. We really want to take that preventative lens just like we want our patients to. I know for me that at the beginning of my hygiene career, I'm a Boston born and raised girl. So I'm a go, go, go, work hard, suck it up. And at the beginning. of my career I did that and I kept going through neck and shoulder pain through lower back pain through starting to feel burnout because of it and I kept going and going and I hit burnout really hard and I was 23 24 years old and I was like this can't be happening so what was the what what actually happened when you hit bottom with burnout what was your life like and what did you do about it uh my life was not exciting I stopped to do I stopped exercising and doing things that really lit me up I had less energy I forced myself to keep working five and six days a week um and I started to become a duller version of me both in and out of the op so when we're burnt out or we don't feel good and we're that dull more dull version of ourselves that translates to how we're taking care of our patients maybe not the actual work we're doing but how we're showing up how we're listening to our patients and what we might be thinking maybe outside of the box a lot of that just becomes smaller and smaller and so my world got quite small and I just hit a really low point and finally got tired of where I was and how I felt. I actually started going to a yoga class and I went to a few and that was actually the turning point to why I started doing what I'm doing now, becoming a yoga therapist is I just sat there and after a few yoga classes realized I felt a little bit better. My energy felt a little bit better. My pain was decreasing a little bit with just a general yoga class. And so There in that moment, I just decided I need to study more therapeutic yoga so I could understand my own body and heal from the pain that I was in and what I was experiencing, but also help other dental professionals do the same. But it starts with just small choices and cutting back a day or a half a day or going to that yoga class or doing a morning. meditation or going on a walk at lunch or there's so many little things that can make a really big difference in the overall you know overall scheme of everything now did you um really go at it really hard because of the finances did you want to make more money is that what was the driving force that put you in a situation where you just worked worked worked and then you obviously went into burnout yeah it's funny because i'm I mean, I'm still a hard worker now, but part of it was the mentality I was raised in. Work hard, get where you want to go. Mostly work hard. I had $60,000 of student loan debt that I was really passionate about getting rid of. And I know that's nothing compared to what dentists come out of school with. the financial part. And for the first time in my life, I was actually making good money and I wanted to really get rid of my student loans. I did, I paid them off in like a year and a half. And, but at the detriment to my own health and wellbeing. So when you look back at that and you want to give some advice to some younger hygienists or younger dentists, and they're in the same situation, they go, you know what, I'm young. And like I mentioned earlier in this episode, I can deal with it. And, you know, suck it up, do the work, and put the money in the bank. What do you say to them? And if they plan to do that, I could do that for two years. It's not going to kill me to really do this for two years. Is that okay? You know, I think that every person is going to be a little different, right? I think we go through different seasons of our lives. But if I were to go back to where I was, I think if I worked one last day a week or a half of a day less a week and really prioritize my own health, I would be in a much different position. Granted, I don't regret it in a way that it led me to what I'm doing now and helping dental professionals. I really think we should consider our overall well-being and longevity in dentistry over these short-term wins. So give me an example of what burnout, how burnout manifests itself as far as the patient's perspective. What does the patient see that we're not even aware of when we're in burnout and we're a dental clinician and we're doing work on the patient? We think that maybe they don't notice what's going on. Do you have any insight into what you think the patient is actually experiencing sometimes when this is going on? Well, here's what I know. I know that not every patient is going to pick up on things, but I think about... I've had experiences where the doctor in my office and the assistant are having this feud and then they go into the office or the operatory and work on a patient. The patient can feel that frustration or disconnect compared to a team that is communicating, that is connected. Patients can feel that. So when it comes to us coming in with burnout, especially if they've met us before, but if we're this duller version of ourselves, we're just in robot mode going. through the motions, again, we're not picking up on maybe what they're saying and we're not listening to, or we're not maybe excited or passionate about helping them. We're not going above and beyond. Our patients can feel that, right? And then they can obviously feel if we're frustrated, if we're irritated, whether you're a dentist and you're irritated and taking that out on your assistant, or as a hygienist, if I'm frustrated, a patient can can feel that. And let's not undermine the effects of burnout on clinical success. I mean, if you're treating a patient who's difficult to manage at four o'clock on a Thursday afternoon, under good conditions, it's a challenge. But when you're suffering from burnout, it makes it more difficult and could affect the clinical outcome of some of the cases. Today's episode is sponsored by Sunstar, makers of gum products. Gum's premium line of interdental cleaners, soft picks, and toothbrushes offers innovative, easy-to-use solutions for better oral care. Learn more today by visiting sunstargum.com. Yeah, can affect patient care and even their comfort during the appointment. So if they're having trouble swallowing and like they're having trouble... keeping their mouth open and we're frustrated with them and just probably more so with what we're doing, a patient can feel that and they're going to have a very different experience than if we're really trying to help them feel comfortable while we're doing that work. And think about it's not just that patient appointment, right? Their patients think about, am I going to go back to that dentist? Am I going to stay with this dentist? Am I ever going to? going to refer my friends and my family to this dentist. So we don't want to think about just that one appointment. We want to think about the longevity of these patients. Yeah, that is so true as far as the growth of the practice. Because I had a dentist when I first moved to Austin. And I don't know if he was in burnout or not, but he was just not happy. I mean, every time I saw him, it was like, you're not really having a good time doing this. And I guess if that's his personality, I shouldn't. Consider that maybe he's in burnout, maybe this is the way he operates. But there's a certain amount of positivity that I think is necessary when a doctor is in the operatory with a patient. You just, you know, going to the dentist is nobody's dream event of the day, right? So it's important to maintain a positive attitude. And I think it's difficult to have a positive attitude when you're suffering from some stage of burnout. Team members who are undergoing burnout not only experience this in the office while they're working, but they also take it home with them. There's ramifications in their personal life. Let's talk about the married dental professional. What is the best way for their spouse to address this? Not that their spouse is listening to this podcast, but just for the sake of discussion. What should the role be of the spouse when it's obvious to them that they're husband or wife is undergoing burnout in the dental practice? That's a good question. Also not on the script, Phil. Just again, if you have a good partnership, just opening up that line of communication is the first step. How are you feeling? Are you sure you're feeling good? You seem tired. I'm noticing this, this and this and without a judgmental tone, but even encouraging small little things and changes that they can do both in and out of work is powerful. Maybe encouraging them to do things together that might support their well-being. Let's go on a walk. after we eat dinner. And of course, we can do those nice things of making dinner and making them feel supported at home, but we really want to help them get to the root of it and make changes for the long term. So communication is huge, just allowing them the space to share and to come up with ideas of ways that could support them and then maybe doing that together. So if you were to mention a couple of examples of things that dentists should think about when they're in the early stages of burnout, and I guess it's pretty obvious when someone's not happy because that's kind of, I mean, that's the telltale sign of burnout, right? Unhappiness, kind of disenchanted, not excited about the career, kind of dreading. you know, at three o'clock, oh my God, I'm going to be here another two more hours doing this and I'm not really in the mood. You know how it is. This is, you went through it. What are some of the things to preemptively pivot away from this kind of debilitating situation? What would you suggest as we wrap up this episode? You know, I think it all comes back to filling our own cup, coming back to taking time and space for ourselves, especially as a practice owner. But it doesn't matter where you work in the office, that clinical care can add up. So making sure that you're taking time for you, you're filling your cup. And I don't mean just a massage or a pedicure, but like what brings you joy even outside of dentistry? What lights you up? and also helps you reduce stress, right? It helps rebalance your nervous system, whether it's going on a hike or spending time with family, although that might do the opposite for some people. Depends on the family. Yeah. Or a yoga class or a meditation. We want to think of things that we can do every day or on a regular basis rather than just waiting months for that one vacation. Till the two years that we can reduce our day. But really finding joy, maybe noticing what parts of your career are feeling more draining, right? Depleting that energy over and what parts of it are lighting you up still and starting to just reflect and maybe even write down some of these things that are coming up for you and get clear. For me. Part of my burnout is hygiene, but part of it is if I don't have systems in the office and a supportive team and doctor that is, again, supporting and implementing these systems and processes, it's a lot easier for me to feel burnt out than a specific environment, the people that I'm surrounded by. Right. So if you're a dental hygienist. There's certainly a very keen demand for dental hygienists and assistants in the dental workforce right now. You want to work in a practice that has systems in place that support you, right? That support you in your clinical work where you don't have to be running around wearing six different hats because that's where the burnout really starts to catch up with you very quickly. And also you're suggesting balance in life, right? To maintain a balance where you do things that you enjoy that not just, like you said, filling your cup. temporarily, but actually maintaining a place where you could re-energize wherever that is, whether it's on a hiking trail or tennis court, whatever you want to do. The other thing also that's really important is I think you should identify like what you mentioned, things that are stress points in the practice. And maybe it's accepting a certain insurance company that doesn't pay you commensurately for the work and that's part of your stress. Maybe you should just make a list of like, 10 things you absolutely do not like about your practice and try to figure out a way to start crossing these things off the list where you literally get rid of them, right? And start transforming the practice the way you want it to be. Because ultimately, if you keep going back to the same practice, even though you're hiking and doing yoga, you're still not getting down to the root cause, right? Exactly. Right. So and it might not be eliminating certain things. Maybe things need to be refined in the practice. Maybe there needs to be better systems so your team can run more smoothly and they know what they're doing. And I know that that can create that can be really supportive for a dentist is a team that shows up for them. They care about their patients. They know that even if they're not in the office, their patients are going to be taken care of. But that does require some work together. So, I mean, I think we got a good understanding of what the challenges are and some of the things we can do to mitigate those problems and relieve ourselves of some of those stress points, but it ain't easy. Dentistry is something that you have to deal with. Listen, life isn't easy, but throw dentistry in there on top of life. It makes it even harder. you know, this is the profession we chose. There's so many fantastic things about it, but there are things that keep us down and stress us out. And we have plenty of podcast episodes that cover some of this stuff. So I encourage our listeners to go to VivaLearning.com, you know, look up, I don't think we have a category on burnout, but we may in the future. But certainly we can look up Parsons under our search field and you'll see a lot of stuff Caitlin is doing with Viva Learning. And Caitlin, thank you so much for being on the show. And we hope to have you on another one soon. Yes, thank you so much for having me. This is a great convo.