Health is Wealth (Wellbeing, Diet and Stress) – IC055

Two weeks ago I suffered a spontaneous pneumothorax and it shook me. This episode came at the PERFECT time as such health scares remind us that our health and wellbeing are the highest form of Wealth.

Should Dentists have a therapist to manage stress and anxiety?

Did you know that a BDA survey found 1 in 5 practitioners have seriously considered taking their own lives?

Is it the intense work environment, the pressure from patients, the fear of litigation, or the added burden of business ownership?

More importantly, how can we address this issue and support dental professionals?

Dr. Simon Chard, a cosmetic and implant dentist and co-founder/CEO of Parla (as seen on Dragon’s Den!), joins Jaz to discuss the often-overlooked realities of the dental profession. 

Here are the two books Jaz recommended during the intro:

The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom

Hold on to your Kids by Gabor Mate

Check out The Dental Growth Retreat by Dr Simon Chard

Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below!

Key Takeaways:

• Simon emphasizes the importance of balancing personal and professional life.
• Mental health issues in dentistry are alarmingly high, with many professionals considering leaving the field.
• Therapy can be beneficial for everyone, including dentists, to manage stress and emotional challenges.
• Building mental resilience is crucial for handling the pressures of dental practice.
• Sleep quality and routine significantly impact overall health and productivity.
• Mindfulness and meditation can reduce stress and improve mental health.
• A structured approach to self-care can enhance resilience in the dental profession.
• Exercise is a key component of maintaining mental and physical health.
• Creating a supportive community among dental professionals is essential for mental well-being.
• Proactive self-care strategies can prevent burnout and improve job satisfaction. You can’t mess up meditation; awareness is key.
• Diet significantly impacts mental health and well-being.
• Interpersonal relationships are crucial for mental resilience.
• Exercise is a powerful tool for physical and mental health.
• Purposeful living leads to greater fulfillment.
• Hydration and nutrition are foundational to health.
• Loneliness can have severe health implications.
• Creating time for relationships is essential.
• A value-based calendar helps prioritize what matters.
• Retreats can provide tools for personal growth and accountability.

This episode is not eligible for CPD/CE points, but never fear, there are hundreds of hours of CPD waiting for you on the Ultimate Education Plan, including Premium clinical workthroughs and Masterclasses.

Highlights of this Episode:
00:00 Intro
04:25 Introduction to Dr Simon Chard
10:10 Why is Dentistry so Stressful?
14:00 Therapy for Dentists
19:20 Strategies for Mental Resilience
25:20 Mindfulness
31:57 Intake
40:32 Love
45:12 Value Based Calendar
48:32 Exercise
51:57 Managing Everything
54:34 The Retreat 

If you enjoyed this episode, check out: Mental Health in Dentistry – PDP185

Click below for full episode transcript:

Jaz: The BDA, which is the British Dental Association, it had like something like it was 18% or nearly 1 in 5, right, had thoughts about and we'll just say it taking their own life, right? And I'm sorry to everyone to go in this direction, but it's important that we address it head on.

Teaser:
Incredible the number of individuals who are vitamin D deficient in this country. So I vitamin D test all of my surgical patients. We have a finger prick, point of care blood tests that we do ahead of the surgical appointment. I would probably say in my patient cohort, 75% are vitamin D deficient. The digital connection that we have with people is like a junk connection, like junk food and the real interpresonal relationship that we have with people is like whole food and whole connection.

Jaz’s Introduction
I agreed to record this episode with Simon a few weeks ago, right? And so it’s amazing how life works, the funny different ways that life works. Because when we agreed on the topic of health and wellness in dentistry, I did not know that two weeks later, I would have a spontaneous pneumothorax, aka a lung collapse, just a few weeks later. And actually, it has completely shaken my life to the core. I’m okay. I’m a little bit short of breath. I have appointments left, right, and center, CT scans, just trying to figure out, piecing it together, why did this happen?

And sometimes when something like this happens, it really gives you an opportunity to evaluate your life. And oh my goodness, there’s been so much evaluation happening in the last eight days. And this episode just came such a wonderful time for me personally as well speaking to Dr Simon Chard our guest today because he is so into nutrition and health and well being and the advice he has to share with us all is so key so foundational and I encourage you to listen the entire way.

You should not miss it. Some of the gems, especially right at the end, are absolutely beautiful. Even if you just take away one thing from this episode, I think you can implement it and improve your health and well being. So you have a better career, a longer career, better health, better relationships, and of course a more fulfilling life and career.

So these are all things that we talk about in this episode. From sleep hygiene, to our diet, to the importance of interpersonal relationships. This podcast episode is full of book recommendations. Me and Simon really connected on all these different books that we like and so we share them.

So what I’ll do is in the show notes, if you scroll down, especially from the Protrusive Guidance app, I’ll just put all those books that we recommend. The most recent one, so a couple that I’m listening to at the moment and every month on the Protrusive Guidance community, I ask you guys, what are you guys reading at the moment?

I can’t believe how many of you are reading dental textbooks. Come on guys. Okay. It’s important. I get it, but I like to know about what non clinical thing are you reading? It’s really important to just not always read clinical dentistry. I want to see you guys reading and listening to non clinical stuff as well.

So the two that I’m listening to this month is Hold On To Your Kids, right? And this is so important because the book talks about how the children of today, if they don’t feel the attachment and connection with their parents, then you know where they’re going to get that attachment void from? They’re going to get it from their peers.

And nowadays, the way society is built up is that actually, we are sort of driving this culture, whereby kids turn 11, 12, 13 and instead of looking to their parents, they are looking to their peers, and it’s like the blind following the blind. So, Hold On To Your Kids by Gabor Maté and the other author I forgot, but really enjoying listening to that, and oh my goodness, The 5 Types Of Wealth.

I’m just into chapter 2 at the moment, I’m listening to it on my commutes. It has just come at such a wonderful time for me. Because of this whole lung collapse issue, I’ve been really reevaluating my life. And so the five types of wealth talks about, okay, one of those types of wealth is financial wealth.

But if it constantly working and chasing that, you are ignoring the four other types of wealth. So let’s see if I can remember this. Okay. So the other types of wealth, which are the most important, the financial one is fifth, because more money does not equal more happiness. We know that already. It does equal more happiness when you are at poverty, right?

If someone is really struggling financially, right? And you inject more money in their life, that will improve their happiness. But once you get to a certain level, It doesn’t matter. You can triple it, quadruple it, 10x it. It’s not going to make your happiness sustainably better for the long term. So that’s why the financial wealth is the last type of wealth.

The other four types of wealth, which are so important that this book covers so far. And again, I haven’t listened to it all. I’m just listening to it. I just want to share it with you because I’m just in the moment. I’m thinking about my health. I’m thinking about the different types of wealth. It’s just brilliant.

And I’ll put that in the show notes and they are time worth. The other one is social wealth, your relationships, the quality of the relationships in your life. And the next two are physical wealth, of course, and mental wealth. Okay. So yes, you can say physical health or mental health, but actually swapping the word health for wealth is really powerful because it gets you to remember that actually this is a type of wealth.

If you want to live a wealthy life, it’s not about just the finances. That’s just one part of being wealthy. If you are poor in those othe