Managing Dentist Burnout: Strategies to Recharge Your Team

Burnout, commonly characterized by depletion, cynicism and emotional detachment, often arises from feeling a lack of control or impact.¹ Dental professionals are no strangers to burnout, and the toll can affect not only their well-being but also the quality of care they provide.

Understanding the root causes and consequences of burnout is essential for dentists, hygienists and the entire dental team. By adopting practical, proven methods to help improve morale and well-being, dental practices can cultivate a more satisfied, resilient team while creating a sustainable and efficient workplace to help prevent dentist burnout.

Understanding Dentist Burnout

Workplace stress in dental professionals may build gradually, but once it takes hold, it can be tough to manage. Nevertheless, there is a pull to carry on daily so patients and teams are not let down or abandoned. The result: Healthcare burnout that can harm the health and happiness of the dental team.²

McKinsey & Company conducted a study in 2023 regarding holistic health and burnout, discovering that:³

• Burnout symptoms are driven largely by job demands (62%).
• Demands like toxic workplace behavior, role conflict or ambiguity in a person’s role often predict eventual burnout symptoms.
• People in smaller practices and non-managers are likely to report higher symptoms of burnout.
• Younger workers ages 18 to 24 are more likely to report higher symptoms of burnout.

Causes of Burnout in the Dental Industry

There are many potential causes of burnout in the dental industry that can cause dentists and their dental team to struggle. The impact of workplace stress on dental professionals can put a strain on dental practices, and identifying the causes of burnout in the dental industry is the first step to managing dentist burnout.

• Repetitive tasks. Dental work is repetitive by nature, requiring meticulous work and extreme focus. Lack of variation in routine can become monotonous and may lead to mental fatigue.
• Perfectionism. Dental professionals are often perfectionists, and their own high expectations for flawless work — plus the demand for dental care to be done without error — can lead to worry about mistakes, inadequacy and mental pressure.
• Workload. There can be a subpar work-life balance in dentistry because of a tight schedule with back-to-back appointments, emergency appointments and long hours. As a result, job satisfaction can decline and physical exhaustion may increase.
• Emotional labor. Dental patients have feelings, and they are not always easy to manage, especially those who are severely anxious, uncooperative or fearful. Such moods often demand communication, and stressful interactions can be taxing and may lead to irritability or emotional exhaustion.
• Staff turnover. When a member of a dental team leaves the team, temporary understaffing can increase everyone’s workload. From administrative burdens to hygienist responsibilities, burnout in healthcare can develop and stick around when a team is too small and busy to get all the work — from dental appointments to dental billing — done on time.

Ideas for Reducing Dental Staff Burnout

A mix of staff appreciation and personal goal-setting can help dental professionals combat burnout, especially among dental staff, and reduce signs that are creeping up to interfere with job satisfaction.

• Find a niche. Instead of trying to do it all, select your niche, whether that’s cosmetic dentistry or working with children. To determine the best route, review public demand for certain treatments or services in your area and analyze the profitability of each so you can optimize your time and attract the desired patients.²
• Engage with coworkers. Create opportunities to talk about burnout with your colleagues. Develop solutions as a team, like delegating more, exploring flexible scheduling that eliminates the grind or taking suggestions based on others’ needs so you can work together to find balance.²
• Take care of yourself. Dentist burnout rates can lead to overwhelmed, stressed leaders. Self-care is important for everyone, and that means taking time for yourself, even if you need to reschedule a few days’ worth of appointments at the last minute. Building days off or half-days for yourself and your team can help you feel refreshed and healthier.²
• Remain curious. Cultivating curiosity can be key to avoiding dentistry burnout. Putting your head down and doing the same work every day is admirable and part of what develops expertise, but leaving space for technological advances, dentistry innovations and new ways to communicate can help make every patient interaction unique.

Tools to Help Improve Dental Team Well-Being

Holistic health prioritizes mental, physical, social and spiritual health, and it’s driven by the individual (28%), their job (21%) and primarily the team they work with (39%), according to the McKinsey study.³ Simplifying, streamlining or breathing new life into the operations of your dental office may help you, your team and your patients.

• Invest in practice management software. With a shared software used by your team, everyone has access to the same information, whether one person is sending appointment reminders via text or another teammate is restocking materials. Leveraging tools can help facilitate collaboration and streamline workflow.⁴
• Embrace change. Operating on autopilot is easy to do in dentistry. If your work is happening in front of you but your mind is elsewhere, it’s a sign you’re going through the motions and may be headed toward healthcare burnout. Change the routine for yourself and your team and switch some job responsibilities to help boost your happiness and eliminate repetitive feelings.
• Offer patient financing. You and your team members may have similar conversations with patients about insurance, but offering financing options like the CareCredit credit card can open new opportunities to support oral health care and reduce dental anxiety about costs.
• Offer supportive leadership. Being a good leader for your dental team doesn’t always mean grand gestures. Conducting regular check-ins, maintaining open communication and offering employees professional development opportunities (and giving the same to yourself) is a way to show kind, supportive leadership to your staff.
• Prioritize wellness. Prioritize mental and physical wellness as the culture of your dental office by providing access to resources for mental health, promoting breaks to stretch and adding ergonomic equipment to help prevent strain and stress on the body. Set the expectation that a work-life balance is a must for every employee and that personal time and boundaries are to be respected.
• Provide recognition. There isn’t much downtime in dental offices, but it’s essential to make time to celebrate and recognize the hard work of the staff. From simple shout-outs to team milestones to personal accomplishments, in-office or out-of-office celebrations, big and small, can keep spirits high.⁵

Support Dental Teams and Help Overcome Dentist Burnout

The demands of the dental industry can challenge dental staff. Proactively addressing burnout can help maintain both individual and organizational performance.¹ Sustainable dental practices depend on the well-being of their dentists and entire dental staff, and nurturing your team with support programs and tools that make their work easier, faster and better can help provide a morale boost to ward off dental burnout.

A Dental Patient Financing Solution for Your Practice

Want to help more patients move forward with the dental care they want or need? Consider offering the CareCredit credit card as a financing solution. CareCredit allows patients to pay for out-of-pocket dental care costs over time while helping enhance the payments process for your practice.

When you accept CareCredit, patients can see if they prequalify with no impact to their credit score, and those who apply, if approved, can take advantage of special financing on qualifying purchases.* Additionally, you will be paid directly within two business days.

Learn more about the CareCredit credit card as a dental patient financing solution or start the provider enrollment process by filling out this form.

Author Bio

Elizabeth Weiss is a freelance writer and editor with more than 20 years of experience in content development for dentistry, orthodontics and cosmetic dermatology. She focuses on making healthcare topics accessible to readers and contributes to many fields, from family and estate law to industrial services and landscape design.

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