Mental Health in Dentistry – PDP185

We need to talk about the ‘S’ word and our mental health. I never, EVER want to lose a colleague again due to the pressures within Dentistry. This is why I interviewed Dr Mahrukh Khwaja, a positive psychologist and Dentist, to help us with strategies to improve our mental health. Why is it that we have so many support channels during a crisis, but no structured pathways to help us AVOID burnout, crisis and stress in Dentistry? https://youtu.be/3JKwoO_nEeo Watch PDP185 on Youtube Protrusive Dental Pearl: What are you doing on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to look after your Mental Health? Do not wait until a crisis, as we already know that prevention is better than the cure. Take the first steps in looking after your mental health with Mahrukh and her Mind Flossing Toolkit Buy Mahrukh's new Book on Resilience and Well-being for Dental Professionals Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Highlights of this Episode:3:01 Protrusive Dental Pearl4:22 Dr. Mahrukh Khwaja Introduction7:34 Seeking Professional Help12:10 Helping Dental Professionals17:08 Suicide Issue within Dentistry20:02 Reducing Suicidal and Burnout Rate24:24 Inner Voice29:51 Cognitive Reframing36:31 Toxic Work Cultures42:24 Signs to Look Out For49:30 Learn more from Mind Ninja If you liked this episode, you will also enjoy IC036 - The Secrets to Finding a Passion in Dentistry Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: April was Mental Health Month on Protrusive Dental Podcast. And you're thinking, wait, hang on a minute, Jaz. We're in May. Why are you telling us about April? Well, I had a stressful month myself, actually, my youngest son was on and off sick and like nothing too serious, thankfully. Like it was antibiotics. Jaz's Introduction:It was tonsillitis. It was a couple of bugs. It was a night in A&E. And it really made me grateful in a way, in the sense that look, yes, my son was sick and I hated it and I felt really bad for him. And it can take your toll when your children are not sleeping very well. But it really made me feel bad for parents who had children with chronic illnesses, think, I don't know, leukemia, or parents with children who have severe learning disabilities, and having to care for those children, it really takes its toll on a parent. Or someone maybe with a child's got cleft lip and palate, feeding issues. Or of course Nafisa, the little girl in Tanzania that we're supporting, which Protrusive are supporting as a charity to help her raise money to fight her SMA type 1 so she can get genetic therapy. If you've been reading my emails, I put a donation link there and we're pretty much there to raising enough money to help this little girl. But anyway, going back on topic, it's been a stressful month, which is why this episode has spilled over into May. A few years ago, I probably would have been stressing about this, like, oh my god, it was supposed to be out in April and that would have eaten me alive. But my mindset has shifted a bit. It's a silly little story, actually, in terms of this mindset shift. Okay, the story goes that my son was on a playdate. It was like an early afternoon thing. And children nowadays, they have better social lives than their parents. So after this playdate, he had a birthday party to go to. So we were driving my son to the birthday party and we were really late. Like we spent too much time on the playdate and we were really late for the birthday party he had to go to. I hate, I absolutely hate running late. So, I was in a stressed state. If you ask me then, Jaz, how do you feel? I'm like, oh my god, I'm so stressed, we're late, Ishaan's gonna miss everything, the cake cutting, everything, he's gonna miss it, this is so stressful, and of course, two kids in the car, and that can get sometimes quite stressful. So, I reached the birthday party, and yes, he just about made it for the cake cutting, but he kind of missed the fun part, and as I was going home, I met one of the parents, Lorenzo, and he said to me, oh Jaz, how are you doing? How come you guys were late? And I said to him, Oh, you know what? I had a really stressful journey here. We got carried away at play day and oh man, I really hate running late. And Lorenzo, he just looked to me. And he's like really nice guy. Someone who you just think is just like always calm and happy, happy go lucky. And he looked at me and he smiled and he said, Don't stress. That's it. That's all he said. He looked at me like what are you stressing for? That doesn't sound stressful at all. And that little moment just put things into perspective for me. It reminded me that stress is almost like a choice. Like it's like we choose to stress. And I'm sorry if I've repeated the story and I've told you the story before and it's not even like a major life event, but it was a helpful reminder. Don't stress. Easier said than done, but I took it on board and that's why I chose to not to stress about the fact that this episode is late because I know you guys are a forgiving bunch and you guys are the nicest and geekiest dentists in the world so I know you guys will forgive me. Dental PearlAnd this episode with Dr. Mahrukh Khwaja will more than make up for it. It's a really big one discussing all things to do with mental health. in dentistry and the biggest takeaway I can give you and really the Protrusive Dental Pearl for this episode is to really ask yourself, what are you doing to look after your mental health? Now we know we should be looking after our physical health, like that's been drummed into us, and we know that mental health services do exist in dentistry, when we reach crisis mode. So when there is a crisis, then there are these phone numbers we can call, for example, ConfiDental, and people we can reach out to when we're really in crisis mode. But why are we waiting for the crisis to happen before we choose to look after our mental health? So I'm hoping this episode will give you some ideas of things to do, but really, you need to really ask yourself, as well as your physical health, what are you doing on a daily, on a weekly, on a monthly basis to look after your mental health and those around you? That could be your family, that could be your spouse, that could be even your teammates, your work colleagues. And one of the things that this episode focuses on is looking out for our colleagues. Like, I do not want to ever lose someone again from suicide. Like, I'm so sorry for using the S word, but it's a theme we do cover in this episode. Because it is getting too much. It is absolutely tragic that there are so many dentists that we all know of, who have lost lives in this way. So if there's one contribution this episode has, is that if we can start recognizing these signs or self help, maybe if you're in a dark place, I want you to really take something away from this episode to look after your mental health. And if there's any way I can ever help, I'm just a DM away. And anyone in our community is just a message away. So hello, Protruserati. I'm Jaz Gulati. And let's listen to what Dr. Mahrukh Khwaja has to say. Dr. Mahrukh Khwaja, welcome to the Protrusive Dental Podcast. How are you? [Mahrukh]I'm really good. Thank you so much for having me on. [Jaz]It's been great to see your growth over the last few years. And for obviously I'm gonna get you to introduce yourself, but the way I see you as someone who is there to uplift people, to help people, not only in this time of difficulty, but to show up as their best and this whole thing about building resilience is what the vibes I get from you. And obviously you're behind mind ninja and we'll talk about that. So just tell us, how did you get into this space? Cause you're still a clinical dentist a few days a week, but you're pivoting, you're helping the profession in a different way. How did you get into it? And what qualifies you to speak about these kinds of things as a dentist? [Mahrukh]Yeah, I mean, that's a really great question and a great place to start. So I graduated back in 2010 from King's and prior to that, I didn't really have any mental health challenges, but it got to around 2014, 15. I was in a marriage that wasn't going very well. I was going through a divorce that was unexpected. And that was my first period of experiencing depression and burnout. And I was really fortunate, actually, that I didn't feel any sense of taboo in seeking a therapist. So my first port of call was, okay, I feel emotionally unable to manage this. I'm noticing a rollercoaster of emotions, finding it a lot more difficult to focus. And I'm just losing my sense of meaning. Like I don't have that sense of purpose anymore. And so- [Jaz]Is this something that you think was palpable for your nurse, palpable for those who are around you in the work environment? [Mahrukh]I think it's quite easy to hide, to be honest. So I don't think people did notice that I was perhaps more withdrawn, but I don't think it was massively noticeable otherwise. It was just something that I really felt in myself that I was really struggling to make sense of my why. If you don't have that, you don't have well-being and that's a horrible kind of place to be. You've got a bunch of negative emotions and also you're constantly either fast forwarding into the future, which feels like a really anxious place, or you're time travelling to the past, and you're ruminating about sorts, and chewing over events. And so, your mind is just so busy with all this chatter. So it was a really difficult space to be comfortable with who I was. And like I said, prior to that, I'm a really sociable person. I have a lot of positive emotions I experience. I'm very grateful. And so it was quite jarring, to be honest, and then also not knowing what to do. I had friends, I had family to fall back on,