Shift Your Energy to Shift Your Burnout

LAURA BRENNER, DDS

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 get sick of hearing it. There’s a reason this word gets so overused though. Burnout is a pervasive problem that we, as a profession, still struggle to solve.

During my decade in practice in the early 2000s, 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. I simply thought I hated my career. Eventually, the pain I experienced was too big, and I had to quit dentistry.

Fast forward eight years after leaving the profession, I began to study burnout in 2019. As I researched for my first-ever presentation on burnout for the RMDC, a lightbulb went on: all those years I thought

I hated my work, I was severely burnt out. That recognition left me wondering, “If I’d had the resources, could I have fixed my burnout instead of leaving my 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 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 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 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

I’ve painted a picture of the pattern 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 in 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 a true win-win. They recognize 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 minds. 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 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 mind 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 postCovid world; this energy shift will allow you to find solutions without the guilt.

When you give yourself 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; 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 everyone else’s 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 at the expense of your own well-being? Or do you want to create a win-win reality that allows you to better help others because of your willingness to create healthy boundaries, practice selfcompassion, and care for yourself?

The choice is yours.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Laura Brenner graduated from Baylor College of Dentistry and then moved to Denver to establish her dental roots. She worked in private practice for 10 years until she left clinical dentistry. As the author of the Lolabees blog, she began connecting with other dentists from around the world who wanted more from their careers. This work inspired her to become a Certified Professional Coach.