Sable News


 

How Dentists Can Build Resilience & Avoid Burnout in Tough Times

Tough times come and go, and one of the challenges is we never know exactly when they will strike. It could be a national emergency like COVID-19, a tragedy in your town, or even a personal setback.

 

In any case, these kinds of events can exacerbate what is already one of the biggest challenges in the dental profession: burnout.

 

Dentists, hygienists and other dental professionals report a very high incidence of stress and burnout, with concerns ranging from litigation to regulation to maintaining high standards of patient care.

 

What does burnout look like, and how can you avoid it in these difficult times? Below, we’ll help you recognize the warning signs and outline ways to build your resilience – whether times are good, bad, or somewhere in between!

 

What is ‘Burnout’ in the Dental Profession?

Burnout is a state of overall exhaustion that affects your mind, emotions, and body, caused by exposure to prolonged and excessive stress.

 

When you’re going through a personal struggle or affected by an event like COVID-19, there will always be times of greater stress in your life. Add that to the day-to-day challenges of managing your business and career… it’s easy to see how these forces combine into a recipe for burnout.

 

Burnout can stem from anything in your life that causes long-term stress. Living through a long, stressful period in your practice, whether your business is struggling to survive or overloaded with patients, is a common cause. Even if you don’t own the clinic directly, the strain from these types of situations can get to you – in fact, dental assistants show higher burnout scores in studies than other staff.

 

What Burnout Looks Like

Burnout makes every day feel like a bad day. It often feels like you have lost your passion for everything, and work that used to excite and challenge you suddenly seems dull and pointless. You may feel like nothing you do makes a difference, even when it does.

 

The main difference between ordinary stress and burnout is that burnout is a chronic condition. While stress is temporary, burnout is constant. When you’re experiencing stress, cynicism, exhaustion and frustration day in and day out, you could be experiencing dental burnout.

 

Everyone reacts differently to prolonged stress, so burnout won’t look the same in each person. It’s important not to discount your burnout simply because it looks different than someone else’s.

 

Common signs of burnout include:

  • Declining performance at work
  • Cynicism and a generally negative view of life
  • Physical illness, including headaches or digestive issues
  • Feeling exhausted no matter how much you sleep
  • Overall disengagement with work and your personal life

 

Once you’ve hit burnout, you may need professional help to recover. Don’t be shy about looking for a therapist, counsellor, psychiatrist or another mental health professional to help you get back on your feet.

 

How to Be Resilient and Avoid Burnout

The key to avoiding dental burnout is to prioritize your own needs. That can be very hard for dentists and hygienists, who feel they have such a strong obligation to others’ needs.

 

Because dentistry is a caregiving profession, it’s easy to get so focused on taking care of your patients and others in your life that you forget to nurture yourself. This is especially true if you spend a lot of time with patients, hearing their stories and sharing in their challenges.

 

However, you can’t give back when you’re pushed up against the wall. Taking care of yourself is how you maintain your ability to care for others.

 

Chances are you’re familiar with the notion of “self-care”, but many people are mistaken thinking it’s all about pampering yourself. Self-care goes far deeper than that. Pampering is great, but you need to take other steps as well!

 

Here are some ways to care for yourself:

  • Calm your mind with meditation or other mindfulness practices
  • Eat healthy meals that provide you with the energy you need
  • Exercise regularly to stay healthy and keep endorphins flowing
  • Prioritize time for hobbies and relaxing with loved ones
  • Don’t hesitate to seek out counselling or mental health services

 

It’s important to understand that having limitations does not make you a failure. Everyone has limitations. Recognizing that and respecting it helps you stay healthy and avoid burnout.

 

Make time for yourself. Realize the importance of your role and that your work makes a difference. When you do, you’ll be building resilience and protecting yourself from burnout.

 

at 1:11 PM
RSS icon Facebook icon Twitter icon LinkedIn icon

Study: Dental Amalgam Boasts Superior Contamination Resistance Than Other Materials

If you’ve been going back and forth on amalgam and whether you should continue using it in your practice, the findings of a new study could provide some clarity.

 

For two full years, five undergraduate students at Loma Linda University examined the impact of extreme contaminations on amalgam fillings during condensation. The goal of these dedicated research design students was to determine the shear-strength degradation effects on dental amalgam.

 

The researchers assessed the reaction of amalgam to gross contamination during condensation under the following elements:

  • Water
  • Saliva
  • Blood
  • Handpiece lubrication oil

The results, published under the title, “Amalgam Strength Resistance to Various Contaminants,”  demonstrated that amalgam is capable of withstanding “worst-case-scenario” levels of contamination equally or better than its alternatives, including resin-modified glass ionomer.

 

Just How Well Does Amalgam Retain Its Strength?

To summarize, here’s a breakdown of the findings discovered in the research discussed above:

  • Amalgam strength wasn’t reduced to a significantly statistical extent (p= 0.05) by water contamination.
  • Compared to water and blood-contaminated water, saliva reduced in between both.
  • In saliva, the final remaining strength was the same or more than the uncontaminated strengths recorded in the available literature for other restorable materials (e.g., composite resin, resin-modified glass ionomer, glass ionomer.)
  • Amalgam strength degradation was at its most significant – at around 50% – when fully immersed in handpiece lubrication oil during condensation. However, contamination from handpiece lubrication oil was proven to be highly unlikely in practice.
  • Still, the oil contamination resulted in amalgam strengths were the same or more than other available restorative materials while exceeding the minimum compressive strength of 35,000 pounds per square inch

How Do the Alternatives Compare to Dental Amalgam?

The results above already indicate the dental amalgam can withstand contaminative circumstances better than many alternatives.

 

Let’s look closer at the alternatives and see how they stack up.

 

1. Composite Resin Fillings

As the most regularly used alternative to dental amalgam, composite resin fillings are tooth-coloured and white. Acrylic resin is the primary material used in the making of these fillings—and they’re reinforced with powdered glass filler.

 

It’s common for composite resin colours to be customized to match surrounding teeth. They’re also often light-cured by blue light in layers to lead into the last restoration.

 

Yes, there’s no doubting the strength and blending capabilities of these fillings. Also, they don’t need much removal of healthy tooth structure for placement.

 

But they come up short in other aspects.

 

First and foremost, the composite resin is harder to place than amalgam—plus, they’re infinitely more expensive. Lastly, while they are strong, these fillings appear to be less durable than amalgam.

 

2. Glass Ionomer Cement Fillings

Organic acids (such as eugenol), bases (such as zinc oxide), and potentially acrylic resins can be found in glass ionomer cement.

 

Glass ionomer fillings are tooth-coloured like composite resin, and its properties seem most ideal for more meagre restorations.

 

These fillings cure on their own and don’t necessitate a blue light for the setting process.

 

While ease of use and quality of appearances are definite plusses with glass ionomer cement, they’re not particularly useful for more significant restorations.

 

Is Amalgam Usage Long for this World?

Of course, we can’t forget that these findings are only part of a bigger picture on the use of dental amalgam.

 

The material’s mercury content makes dental amalgam a public health and ecological risk, particularly after its removal. On July 14, 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized regulation specifically targeting the use and disposal of dental amalgam. In Canada, dentists must use amalgam traps and filters to collect amalgam waste and recycle it appropriately.

 

As such, many dentists – as a protective measure – are opting to use alternatives to amalgam for health, safety and ecological reasons.

at 3:10 PM
RSS icon Facebook icon Twitter icon LinkedIn icon

Contributors

Blog Contributor Portrait
Name: Generic Administrator
Posts: 15
Last Post: September 13, 2023
Blog Contributor Portrait
Name: Suzanne Chalk
Posts: 8
Last Post: February 27, 2020
Blog Contributor Portrait
Name: Christopher Zielinsky
Posts: 23
Last Post: January 15, 2020

Latest Posts

Show All Recent Posts

Archive

Tags

Dental Hygienist Dentists Dental Practices Off Topic Software Solutions Dental Office Tooth Enamel Endocrine Disruptors Oral Health Tooth Decay Bioactive Glass Dental Fillings Oral Surgery Oral Surgery Recovery Dental Patients Dentist Anxiety Patient Therapy Oil Pulling Teeth Whitening Bad Breath Tooth Discolouration Oral Screening Ergonomics Musculoskeletal Disorders Dental Equipment Handpiece Dental School Chairside Burnout Ondontophobia Pet Dental Care