Up to half of all dentists report feeling stressed on an ongoing basis. If you are a dental practitioner who is feeling stressed due to workplace pressures, here are some things you can do to make your work day easier.

Employ a business manager

Most dentists, such as those at Creative Dentistry, enjoy the patient facing aspect of their job, but not everyone always feels as passionate about the more administrative side of their business such as scheduling and ordering supplies. If your practice is well developed, you can look to employ a full time office manager, but even if you are just starting out you can outsource some of your administrative load to specialists such as book keepers so you can spend your time on the more value adding parts of your practice.

Manage your hours

Any small business owner can find it easy to keep working through the night and through their lunch breaks, working on ways to constantly improve your business. However, managing your hours to a reasonable level by scheduling in some business management time alongside your patient time and enforcing some leisure time on yourself can help to relieve stress. Try to ensure that you have some regular exercise built into your day, as many people find this helps with certain stress symptoms such as poor sleep and backache.

Set up your practice for comfort

With many dentists reporting issues with backache, setting up your rooms in a way that supports your back is another way to help ensure your work is less stressful. In addition to having adjustable chairs, you should also carefully review how supplies are stored within the practice as these can also be a source of backache if they are stored in very low, very high, or generally awkward locations to reach.

Educate yourself about stress management

Given the high levels of anxiety that dentists report, it can be useful to work on recognising the signs of stress in yourself and working on ways to manage this stress, including breathing exercises, visualisation and self massages. By recognising the early signs of stress, you can often make small changes to manage your stress before it becomes overwhelming.

Managing your stress as a dentist helps you to enjoy your job more and focus on the main part of your job, which is helping your patients. A less stressed dentist can offer a more reassuring and relaxed face to their patients.

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