Eaten up with guilt, shame and fear, I’ll never forget the young teenaged patient who nervously answered “yes” when I asked if she had any eating disorders while filling out her medical history. I had been nervously anticipating the day I’d encounter a patient who would respond affirmatively to this question because I’d been in her situation before.
If you have been on TikTok recently, you have probably come across a video featuring the following quote: “You have to start romanticizing your life. You have to start believing that your morning commute is cute and fun — that every cup of coffee is the best that you’ve ever had. That even the smallest and most mundane things are exciting and new.”
The journey to dentistry is associated with high levels of stress due to habits of perfectionism, economic pressures, the constant need for approval, overwhelming situations and patient anxiety. Therefore, our brains often require a decluttering process I like to call “mental floss.”
Dr. Tyler Fix graduated dental school in 2017 and practices at PureCare Dental in Bend, Oregon. Dr. Fix has a career he loves but learned the hard way that the path to professional fulfillment can come with unexpected twists and turns.
Health care providers have a knack for neglecting their own health. We focus on our patients, but we need care, too. Over the last four years, I learned what worked (and what didn’t) to mentally, physically and socially keep myself well. These are my tips as a senior to help you get through school and stay well.
My patient was escorted to our urgent care clinic wearing an ankle monitor. Her chief complaint was that she felt pain around every tooth. When I took a closer look, the source of her pain became apparent. She had a mouth full of non-functional root tips. Almost every root tip showed signs of infection. My patient was from a local drug rehabilitation center, and she was 10 months sober from a heroin addiction. As a result, she wasn’t allowed any prescription narcotics or nitrous oxide, as instructed by her program due to fear of relapse.
If you keep up with Mouthing Off, then you’ve read several posts about stress relief and mental health. And if you are like me, you read them, but you don’t change any habits because of the notion that “there’s not enough time” to do so. Despite their stress-relieving benefits, I was continually telling myself that I didn’t have the time to do yoga or meditate. Over the past couple months, though, I noticed that with graduation looming, I was not sleeping well. I believed my lack of sleep was due to increased stress, so, while awake in the middle of the night, I searched for ways to relieve stress.
