Kat, wishing you all the best with your health. Sounds like you’re definitely taking a positive approach. 🙂

It is funny how you can enjoy the mundane, simple things as you back away from the intense life of dentistry (especially with your daily reminders as you watch your husband’s stress.) I don’t know if that ever wears off. Haha! I still enjoy the simple things. I imagine you might too!!

At the moment I am enjoying the calm! I’m so worried about my health, and now that I’m being forced to take it easy, it’s nice to enjoy pursuits I’ve not enjoyed since I was a child – like being able to read a book in a day!

I’m also enjoying being a housewife, and now that I’m not as stressed, I can really see how stressed my husband is (also a dentist). I’ll keep you posted once the novelty of the simple things in life wears off!

That’s really great to hear. I always believed there are fundamentals that make this career so hard for so many, and it is a amazing that we feel these same challenges in many different countries. I’m in a FB group for dentists in the UK, and I can not believe how horrendous the NHS makes practicing dentistry. I’m shocked by the amount of abuse so many dentist have to take.

So interesting about the paramedic. I would think that would be such a stressful job! He certainly makes a point, and I also wonder what is it about his personality that allows him to feel so zen about it… maybe it is the fact that it’s his second career, and he has such a different perspective based on his experiences from his first career. WE do carry that stress around.

I’m so glad you’ve shared your thoughts with us! Do you have any idea of what you’d like to do next?

100 times better!! I got lucky & got an amazing practice where there was no pressure to sell. On the whole you get much more time with patients and are respected a lot more. However that general anxiety of being a dentist is still there.

Interestingly, I was speaking to a paramedic at the weekend who was explaining that his job wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be. When he worked in business he said he had the constant stress of remembering to call that client, remember to send that email, work on the weekly deadline, monthly deadline, quarterly deadline. Constant. Like us – call that patient, write that letter, is so and so ok, hope that tooth hasn’t fractured, hope the lab get this right, did I charge enough? Did I charge too much? Hope so and so didn’t complain…… He said as a paramedic you get the odd 15-30 minutes of stress, and then you move on. I guess their job is get the patient from A to B, and then they are no longer their patient. We on the other hand don’t have that luxury and carry the stress around – which is why the 2 days still don’t work!

PS. I love that you have created this space for us all to realise we are not alone! Well done!!

Kat– I’m curious, did you find practicing dentistry any better in Australia than being part of the NHS?

By the way I had hoped working 2 days a week would have been easier for me too, but I had similar experiences that you describe…

I never post on blogs, but reading your comments, it was like you are in my mind! I also worked in the English NHS system and it is every bit as horrendous as you say (and some!) At one point I only worked 2 days/week, but after 5 days off flew by, I was back to the sickness, anxiety, not able to sleep…… I would always wish my drive to work could take that little bit longer. I contemplated giving up, but didn’t know what to do.

My husband is a dentist as well and has all the exact same feelings. So we packed up & shipped out and came here to Australia. My work/life balance is so much better, but now I’m off work with chronic back pain & again contemplating what to do.

Being a dentist does define you. People instantly judge you. I’m not in it for the status or the money. I genuinely wanted to help people, but that’s why it’s frustrating when people don’t want to be helped & assume you’re trying to make money. One lady with her designer hand bag & clothes had a go at me, but quickly shut up when I told her I commuted by bus.

In my opinion, there are 2 types of dentists: those who really care, but they earn less and suffer more; and those who are in it for the status/money and get that easily. It depends what you want. I think all of us on here are of the 1st and our personalities aren’t suited for dentistry. There’s a comment below about empathy & narcissism- so true! We want more from life than dollars and cents, and others who aren’t that way inclined just can’t see that. And that’s their problem!! Well done to you for following what’s true to you. At the end of the day you’ll be happier than all those who gave you negative comments.

I totally get that….so glad you were able to shake those demons!!! (as did I, finally).

So true. And I’ll never forgive them for teaching me that once I touched a tooth I owned it. I get the importance of responsibility, but I took that message way too seriously, and I always felt like every failure was my fault– I took it to the extreme, and it destroyed my spirit.

Yes, somewhere along the line, dentists are often trained (persuaded? brainwashed?) into thinking that if a treatment fails, or needs to be modified, it is because they have done something wrong. I believe this starts in dental school, due to the poor instructional methods that are often employed. After all, we are training to become mechanics!

Of course I realize that there are dentists whose work could need some improvement, just as there are bad physicians. But I don’t believe they are the majority, by any means.

Also I believe that many dentists — in the privacy of their own offices (not at conventions when they appear to be so “chummy”) — will criticize other dentists’ work in front of a patient, to make themselves look better. I know… it’s a pretty negative view (and sad state) of the profession, but I have seen and heard this happening on more than one occasion. Patients hear that and believe it.

And I spent many weekends worrying and waiting for emergency calls as well — which directly affected my complete attention and enjoyment of that time. Even if no calls came in, the thought was always in the back of my mind — at any moment I might have to deal with a patient who thought they were in an “emergency” situation. Over the years, I’d gotten paged at a baseball game, a wedding, on a biking excursion, on the way to a movie, just to name a few. It’s not worth it!