Maintaining a Healthy Work-Life Balance for Dental Professionals

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There’s a lot more to life than dentistry. Even though your profession may take up most of your time, it’s important to note that sustained, long term stress is bad for your health and your personal life. Making small changes now can lead to a better experience and a healthier work/life balance.

If you’re a hard-working dentist who’s used to burning the candle at both ends, just how do you take a break and get away from it all?

Figure Out What You Enjoy

If this is the first time you’ve heard about the importance of maintaining a work/life balance, chances are you might need to spend a little extra time figuring out what drives you. What do you enjoy doing? What relaxes you? This is the first step to planning the life you want to live.

Whether you need to start a new hobby or rekindle a leisurely past time you haven’t explored in a while, make the time and space for it in your schedule.

Start off by introducing your hobbies or interests two to three times a week. Whether it’s going to the gym, spending time with friends, or booking a date night, give yourself a chance to make time for your interests outside of your practice.

Plan Your Vacations in Advance

Yes, you read that right. As well as giving you something to look forward to in the year ahead, booking your vacations in advance ensure that you will actually go. If you wait around for your schedule to clear, you’ll never get away. Your vacation days will pile up, get dusty, and your work and home life will suffer.

The good news is that studies show it doesn’t matter if you go away for six long weekends or one two day break, it’s getting away that will make the biggest difference to your body, mind, and soul.

Innovate Better

Don’t have an extra four hours a week to lead a balanced life? Optimize your time better. What does that mean? Well, if riding your bike just can’t fit into your schedule, consider riding to work. Or, get an exercise bike to use at home while you watch your favorite TV show. Sure, you might not be training for a triathlon this year, but it’s infinitely better than doing nothing at all.

Open Your Mind

Don’t have hobbies or interests? Not interested in anything other than your profession? Don’t worry, here are some ideas just for you:

Travel more. Travel has unintended benefits for dental professionals. Because we work in a multicultural society any kind of travel or learning about other cultures offers a beneficial experience.

Listen to music or better yet, learn to play music. Why? Well music has been proven to improve sequential skills development and memory.

Art and drawing have been shown to improve memory, concentration, and attention to detail.

Playing sports is physically beneficial in terms of stress management and can also improve hand eye coordination. There’s also a recreational and social element if you choose to participate in extracurricular activities with friends or colleagues.