Stress, dentistry and yoga

I graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1986 –newly qualified I went to work as a school dentist on the island of Guernsey. Happy days!

In 1988 I moved to Birmingham and went on to own my own single-handed dental practice for 26 years.

Dentistry is stressful – working conditions isolation, regulation, managing a solo practice, physical and emotional stress, the risk of litigation, uncertainty around NHS dentistry, pressure of targets, tight schedules, finances, insurance problems, encroachment and regulations of government bodies, complaints, lack of quiet time, unfavourable public perception – and more.

Even the regular occurrence of a nervous patient stating ‘I don’t like dentists’ is a negative stressor.

Moving on

When I sold my practice after 30 years in dentistry back in 2016 I had experienced all of those stresses – and more: trying to balance a family, home and relationship as well as my own physical and mental health. The result? burnout, anxiety and depression. sleeplessness, breakdown, withdrawal, loss of motivation, divorce – the list goes on. High pressure professionals are also prone to drug and alcohol abuse as well as thoughts of suicide.

My response was to sell – walking away seemed the best option. That, of course was not without its own stress – selling and due diligence took the best part of a year and felt, at times, like jumping off a cliff. One day I was a practice owner: the next – all over. Free.

Unwinding

Months passed before I felt able to fully unwind – and just over a year later, having sold my house too, I moved from Birmingham to Whitley Bay, where I had gone to school. By this time I had joined a Crossfit gym and started on my journey to become a yoga teacher. Focusing on fitness and yoga helped me through the stress – and still do. Just the thought of those years in dentistry can send me into panic mode. Yoga, fresh sea air and meditation are the answer. That and throwing around some heavy weights at the gym – but that’s another story.

Live Now

Now I focus on the positive. I love my life away from the drill. My message is this – to the dentists out there: remember in all those efforts to build up financial wealth that your physical and mental wealth will be, in the end, far more valuable.

Or in the words of the Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, he answered:

“Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not live in the present or the future: he lives as if he is never going to die, then he dies having never really lived”