Supporting Mental Health in the Dental Profession

We need to talk about the ‘S’ word and our mental health. I never, EVER want to lose a colleague again due to the pressures within Dentistry. This is why I interviewed Dr Mahrukh Khwaja, a positive psychologist and Dentist, to help us with strategies to improve our mental health. Why is it that we have so many support channels during a crisis, but no structured pathways to help us AVOID burnout, crisis and stress in Dentistry? https://youtu.be/3JKwoO_nEeo Watch PDP185 on Youtube Protrusive Dental Pearl: What are you doing on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to look after your Mental Health? Do not wait until a crisis, as we already know that prevention is better than the cure. Take the first steps in looking after your mental health with Mahrukh and her Mind Flossing Toolkit Buy Mahrukh's new Book on Resilience and Well-being for Dental Professionals Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Highlights of this Episode:3:01 Protrusive Dental Pearl4:22 Dr. Mahrukh Khwaja Introduction7:34 Seeking Professional Help12:10 Helping Dental Professionals17:08 Suicide Issue within Dentistry20:02 Reducing Suicidal and Burnout Rate24:24 Inner Voice29:51 Cognitive Reframing36:31 Toxic Work Cultures42:24 Signs to Look Out For49:30 Learn more from Mind Ninja If you liked this episode, you will also enjoy IC036 - The Secrets to Finding a Passion in Dentistry Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: April was Mental Health Month on Protrusive Dental Podcast. And you're thinking, wait, hang on a minute, Jaz. We're in May. Why are you telling us about April? Well, I had a stressful month myself, actually, my youngest son was on and off sick and like nothing too serious, thankfully. Like it was antibiotics. Jaz's Introduction:It was tonsillitis. It was a couple of bugs. It was a night in A&E. And it really made me grateful in a way, in the sense that look, yes, my son was sick and I hated it and I felt really bad for him. And it can take your toll when your children are not sleeping very well. But it really made me feel bad for parents who had children with chronic illnesses, think, I don't know, leukemia, or parents with children who have severe learning disabilities, and having to care for those children, it really takes its toll on a parent. Or someone maybe with a child's got cleft lip and palate, feeding issues. Or of course Nafisa, the little girl in Tanzania that we're supporting, which Protrusive are supporting as a charity to help her raise money to fight her SMA type 1 so she can get genetic therapy. If you've been reading my emails, I put a donation link there and we're pretty much there to raising enough money to help this little girl. But anyway, going back on topic, it's been a stressful month, which is why this episode has spilled over into May. A few years ago, I probably would have been stressing about this, like, oh my god, it was supposed to be out in April and that would have eaten me alive. But my mindset has shifted a bit. It's a silly little story, actually, in terms of this mindset shift. Okay, the story goes that my son was on a playdate. It was like an early afternoon thing. And children nowadays, they have better social lives than their parents. So after this playdate, he had a birthday party to go to. So we were driving my son to the birthday party and we were really late. Like we spent too much time on the playdate and we were really late for the birthday party he had to go to. I hate, I absolutely hate running late. So, I was in a stressed state. If you ask me then, Jaz, how do you feel? I'm like, oh my god, I'm so stressed, we're late, Ishaan's gonna miss everything, the cake cutting, everything, he's gonna miss it, this is so stressful, and of course, two kids in the car, and that can get sometimes quite stressful. So, I reached the birthday party, and yes, he just about made it for the cake cutting,