📍 Dental teams are not burnt out because they're weak or they're not strong. They are burnt out because dentistry has changed and leadership did not change fast enough to support it. If you're a dental leader right now, feeling frustrated, discouraged, or quietly wondering why it feels harder than it ever has.

I want you to stay with me in this episode today because what is happening in dentistry right now is not about people being lazy. Contrary to popular belief, it's not about entitlement and it's not about a lack of work ethic. And I know you're probably already rolling your eyes at me, but I want us to step back for a minute and understand that it is more about a system that evolved without updating how we lead inside of it.

And burnout is just the result. Welcome back to No Silver Spoons. I am Sarah Beth Herman.  Season five here at No Silver Spoons is focused entirely on leadership because leadership is where most dental offices either stabilize.

Or they slowly unravel. And today we're talking about burnout in dentistry, what leaders are getting wrong and what has fundamentally changed about the industry that we no longer can ignore. This episode is not meant to shame leaders in any way. It is meant to help you see clearly. So let's talk about how dentistry used to operate.

More than five, more than 10, more than 15, more than 20. Dental offices were simpler. Insurance plans were more straightforward, phones rang less frequently. Patients trusted the office by default. Schedules were full, but expectations were lower. Front desk roles were clearer. Billing followed more predictable patterns.

Eligibility was not a full-time emotional job. People came to work, they did their role. They went home tired at times, but not emotionally drained. And leadership relied heavily on personality, memory, and long longstanding habits. You trained people by showing them once or twice. You expected them to figure things out as they went, and for a long time that really did work.

But dentistry today is not that. Dentistry, let's talk about today. Insurance is more complex than ever. Patients are more informed, more skeptical, more demanding. Phones are constant. They're emotional, they're conversation and conversion focused. Staffing shortages have turned single roles into multi role positions.

Front desk teams are now expected to answer phones, manage insurance questions, explain benefits they don't control. Handle upset patients, protect production, keep your schedule full and maintain a calm and friendly demeanor. Office managers are expected to manage people. Manage performance, manage conflict, manage doctors' expectations, manage systems that were never fully documented, and leaders are often still operating from an old playbook.

That gap is where burnout lives. Burnout does not usually show up as someone quitting immediately, and I know that we think that, I know that the default for all of us just to say, oh, well they just got burnt out. That's why they quit. But it actually shows up as good employees becoming quiet. I've been that one.

I've given years of myself to dental businesses, dental companies, group practices, and ultimately just became quiet,  capable team members, pulling back, people doing only what is asked and not a single step more. Leaders feeling like they are carrying everything alone. Burnout is both emotional and it's exhaustion paired with a lack of control, dare I say, and dentistry right now.

It creates a perfect storm for that. I wanna say, with the most respect I could possibly have, that most dental leaders are not failing. They're overwhelmed and undersupported. But there are patterns that are contributing to burnout, whether leaders intend for them to or not. And I'm gonna lay them out for you because this last week I have had conversations with so many dental practices where the conversation, it begins the same.

We're running ragged, Sarah Beth, I can't figure it out. Our practice isn't doing any more production, but it feels like we have 10 times the work. I don't really know what to do. I've got this employee over here doing X, Y, Z, this one facing a wall because I don't want her to get distracted by what she's working on from patients that are asking questions.

I'm running ragged. I'm working weekends. I'm working into the night. I'm posting my own payments. I hear it all the time, and this week it has been so heavy on my heart to make this very episode.  So the patterns that are contributing to that burnout. And maybe you're not intending for it to, but these patterns are these four right here.

Expecting people to absorb change without guidance. The industry changed fast, but training didn't. We thought we could still just have that hands-off approach. Hire the office manager, tell them to stay up front and dentists do the dentistry in the back too. Confusing resilience with silence. Just because someone is not complaining does not mean that they are.

Okay. Three, believing pay alone fixes burnout. I was in a training a couple of weeks ago and one of the executives of this dental brand, he said, how am I gonna get someone? To do what I want them to do.  What pay should I give them? What bonus structure should I give them so that they do this perfectly?

And I said, it's not about pay. You're focused on all the wrong things. Money is actually the biggest de motivator because there's never enough. You're  always wanting more. Pay does matter, but pay does not replace clarity. Pay does not replace structure. Pay does not replace emotional safety. Pay does not replace an SOP.

And number four, letting systems live in people's heads. When knowledge is not documented, pressure concentrates on just a few people. Leadership today requires more design, less assumption. Burnout is not a trendy word. It's actually very well studied. The World Health Organization defines burnout as a workplace phenomenon with three components, emotional exhaustion, mental distance from one's job, and reduced professional efficacy.

The last one's critical. People stop believing they are good at what they do. Research from the Journal of Occupational Health. Psychology shows that burnout increases when there is role ambiguity, lack of autonomy, high emotional labor without recovery. Dental offices check all three of those boxes, so if burnout is rising, it shouldn't surprise any of us.

It's actually predictable at this point. Our front desk teams, front office teams and office managers, they carry this invisible layer that people aren't even seeing. They manage patient emotions, insurance confusion, schedule pressure, internal team tension, production expectations. And most of the time it's without backup.

When someone leaves these roles, leaders often say, well, they just couldn't handle it. They weren't smart enough. They weren't good enough. They weren't the right person. They weren't the right fit. The better question here

was this role designed to be handled by one person. Burnout is often a systems issue that gets blamed on a single person. The dental leaders who are stabilizing teams right now are not working harder. They are working differently. They are clearly defining roles. They are documenting processes. They are reducing role overload.

They're normalizing questions. They're building rapport into structure. They understand something really important here that SOPs are not micromanagement. They are protection. Clarity. It isn't control. It's actually relief. And here's a question every dental leader should ask. Honestly, if I stepped into this role today with no prior experience, would the systems we have in place support me?

I, if the answer is no, then burnout is never a surprise. Leadership today is about designing roles. People can sustain. And this is where I wanna speak clearly about what we do at dentistry support and why it exists. And I'm not saying this so that you have a mini commercial on things. I just want you getting your brain thinking differently, thinking more open, thinking holistically about what's going on in your practice.

Our team supports dental offices with dental billing, insurance verification, phones credentialing, medical billing for dental. We do training. We do a lot of things to support a dental office. Hence the name Dentistry Support. We don't replace teams, but we support them. We are real humans, real support, real systems in place because when administrative pressure is shared, leaders can lead again and teams can breathe.

Support is not weakness. It's actually strategy. There's a quote I want you to think about. People do not burn out from hard work.

They burn out from unclear expectations and lack of support. Dentistry has always been hard work. What people cannot carry forever is confusion. If you want to start making change without overhauling everything. I would begin here. I would start with auditing your roles. Honestly, document what only one person knows.

Reduce emotional overload where possible and build support into your systems. Leadership is not about pushing harder. It's about building smarter. If this episode helped you see your team or your leadership differently, I encourage you to share it with another dental leader who just might need this. And the next episode here at No Silver Spoons, we're gonna be talking about something many offices are quietly struggling through.

Episode 108 is all about front desk crisis. Phones, insurance conversion, emotional overload, and the breakdown that no one wants to admit is happening and you are not going to wanna miss it.

Be sure to check back for bonus episodes and if this podcast has been helpful to you or your team, please take a moment to rate, review and share it. This is how this message reaches more leaders who need it most. You can also find us on social media. We love supporting you and your team, and we are always sharing leadership conversations that matter.

Let's wrap up this episode with our, that's good moment if you're new around here with every episode release, we have a fast, good moment where we recap the things that we want you to take with you as you leave this episode today. Here are three things to carry with you. One, burnout is not a character flaw.

It is a leadership signal. Two, structure protects people. Clarity creates stability. And number three, dentistry has changed. Leadership must change with it, and that is good. Thank you so much for tuning in to this week's episode at No Silver Spoons, where we talked all about why dental teams are burning out and what leaders are getting wrong right now.

We are so grateful for every listen like and comment. Again, my name is Sarah Beth Herman. I am the CEO of Dentistry, support Dentistry, support Academy, and several other brands that you can learn all about in the show notes of this episode. Until next time, thank you for  📍 choosing no silver spoons, and I'll catch you on the next episode.