The Mental-Dental Connection-The Mental-Dental Connection

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Dr. Joshua Austin’s webinar, <strong>“The Mental Dental Connection,”</strong> focused on how mental health affects dental professionals’ clinical performance, leadership, and personal well-being. He opened with a personal story about growing up in dentistry, his father’s influence, and the pressure he felt to earn approval after his father’s death. That unresolved grief, along with years of chasing achievement, led to anger, burnout, and emotional distress in his own practice.

Austin emphasized that dentists are at high risk for depression, anxiety, burnout, musculoskeletal pain, and suicide, and that the profession often hides these struggles because dentists are trained to “fix” problems rather than discuss them. He shared research showing elevated rates of mental illness and suicide in dentistry, and argued that dental education and continuing education should include more mental health training.

He also explained how mental illness and dental disease are connected, recommending improved screening questions on patient forms, including questions about medications, mental health care, trauma, anxiety, depression, and addiction. He reviewed common psychiatric medications and their oral effects, such as dry mouth, bruxism, and implant risk.

The second half of the talk focused on self-care strategies: setting social media limits, exercise, yoga, breathing, meditation, and therapy. Austin strongly advocated therapy as a way to process trauma, reduce stigma, and improve relationships, leadership, and resilience. He concluded that dentists should prioritize their own mental health not just to become better clinicians, but to become better people, partners, parents, and leaders.

Asset Caption

Anxiety, pain, depression, burnout — dentistry can be difficult and take a toll. Studies show that dental professionals experience a high incidence of mental illness. Additionally, many dental professionals don’t clearly understand the mental health conditions that our patients present with, which red flags to watch for, or what to do and how to intervene. Presented in Austin’s trademark comedic style, this course explores strategies for working together to improve mental health so we can be our best.

Keywords

mental health

dentistry

burnout

depression

anxiety

suicide

dental professionals

clinical performance

leadership

self-care

therapy

patient screening

psychiatric medications