Encouraging healthy conversations about mental health and being more vulnerable are important steps in helping to overcome some of these barriers to improving men’s mental health and wellbeing.

Stress is inevitable, but taking steps to address it can help to ensure that you get a good night sleep so that it doesn’t affect your performance the next day.

It is important that no matter where you are in your career, from student through to experienced clinician, that you run your own race. Don’t worry about what other people might think about the choices you make, the lifestyle you lead or even the way you dress. Chances are they are too worried about their own lives to be thinking of you. So save your energy and put it to good use.

Feeling anxious is a normal response to keep us safe from danger - it’s fight or flight in action. But persistent worry or distress can be difficult to control. Up to one-third of women and one-fifth of men will experience anxiety at some point in their lives. Recent research has found that 1 in 10 dental practitioners have reported a current diagnosis of anxiety disorder, and around 20% reported ever having a diagnosis of anxiety disorder.

Living in a state of mental health is often described as a state of flourishing, with attendant positive feelings, emotions and functioning. The opposite of flourishing is languishing, a feeling of stagnation and emptiness and the absence of mental health.

Whilst healthy guilt is a normal response when we do something wrong, unhealthy guilt and shame can cause us psychological distress. It is important to practice self-compassion, address irrational beliefs and try to move awareness away from thoughts of self-criticism or inadequacy.

It is said that fear extinguishes more dreams than failure. Fear of failure will prevent you from seeking out new experiences or taking risks, so it is important to try and embrace and challenge those fears in order to grow and experience new opportunities.

The pace of dental practice can be relentless, and the stress sometimes overwhelming. And we know the impact that this can have on practitioner wellbeing. High levels of stress, burnout and work dissatisfaction and lead to many people losing their passion for dentistry. Mindfulness is not a quick fix to stress or burnout. It takes practice and training – in some ways it’s no different to training to improve your physical health. You won’t see benefits overnight, but they will accrue over time as the practice becomes easier.

As oral health professionals we are always recommending to patients that they have a regular dental check-up to ensure that we have the best chance to detect any disease early and prevent things from potentially getting worse. But it’s just as important for us to have a regular mental health check-up too.

You’ve heard of financial capital, technological capital, and human capital, but what about psychological capital? Although this resource may not be as evident as the latest equipment or the monthly figures, it plays a vital role in mental health and overall wellbeing, as well as performance and success.

Strengths are pots of gold sitting within all of us, waiting to be excavated, harnessed, and deployed. Next time you come up against a challenge or an exciting project, step outside the box and let your strengths pull you forward. We all have unique and complementary strengths, so let’s use them to positively influence our environment, instead of simply becoming a by-product of it.

Emotions carry information from our body to our brains, telling us what’s going on in our internal and external environments. They are fast, fluid, and dynamic, and when we learn to accurately read our emotions, we can harness all the information they’re trying to tell us. Try to welcome more positive emotions into your day, such as gratitude, joy, appreciation, calm, fulfillment, enthusiasm, and inspiration. And don’t let them pass too quickly. See if you can stretch them out and savour them; your wellbeing will thank you for it.

As a profession that advocates for prevention over cure, it can be surprising and saddening to know that the same approach isn’t applied to clinician wellbeing. With mental health concerns rising amongst dental professionals, it’s imperative that we focus on clinician wellbeing now more than ever. Adding tools to their wellbeing toolkit is a great start, and one of those tools is resilience.

Humans are inherently wired to move towards a goal or purpose. So, if you are experiencing a goalless floundering state it doesn’t just feel bad, it literally is bad for your wellbeing and psychological health. How do we shake things up and get you out of the rut you’re in? Through the science of goal setting.

Emotions aren’t good or bad—they just are. They are an automatic response to a given situation, and we don’t really have the ability to control our emotions. But we do have the ability to control how we respond to our emotions.

‘Saying no is not letting others down. It’s standing up for yourself. Setting boundaries isn’t a display of disrespect. It’s an expression of self-respect.’ Adam Grant

We are conditioned to say yes, and to help others out, but sometimes that comes at the expense of our own wellbeing. Learning the importance of setting boundaries and saying NO is an important skill.

When was the last time you took a holiday? Already we are nearly halfway through the year. Christmas and New Year is but a fading image in the rearview mirror, and the end of this year still feels like a lifetime away. Even for those with children, school holidays are not always the most relaxing time to take a break from work and unwind. Many people working in the dental profession fail to take enough time off work. Holidays don’t need to be expensive. You don’t even need to travel. The key is to switch off from work and take the time to relax.

Are you obsessed with your work? Most dental practitioners love the work that they do and feel extremely passionate about helping their patients improve their oral health. When work aligns with our values we can achieve a state of balance that boosts our positive emotions and improves our wellbeing. However, sometimes we become obsessed to the point that we believe that what we do is so important that it takes over our life, creating anxiety and tension that can negatively impact our wellbeing.

Social media is playing an increasingly larger and important role in our lives, both personal and professional. Sadly, for some people, social media can be a toxic environment that is more detrimental than beneficial. So whilst it can be a valuable tool for dental professionals, it is important to be mindful of some of the pitfalls, particularly in the way that it can impact on our mental health.

Receiving praise makes us feel good. It’s nice to receive recognition for a job well done, and to feel appreciated. But did you know that expressing gratitude to another person can also improve your mood and wellbeing? Being grateful shifts our focus from the negative to the positive. Negative thoughts focus on what is lacking, whereas positive thoughts focus on what is present and good.