Women in Dentistry - Blog

By: Yasmin Bakhtiar, DMD & Certified Life Coach

Are you paying attention to what you are thinking and believing about yourself and the world around you?

If not, it could be costing you your quality of life. It could also be preventing you from achieving the goals you desire.

How? You ask.

Our thoughts are what generate our feelings and emotions. In turn, those feelings then dictate what actions we take. For example, if you have set a goal for yourself, the actions you take (or don’t take) will be very different if you are feeling committed versus defeated. The cumulation of our actions or inactions then produces a net positive or negative result.

It is important to note that beliefs are just repetitive thoughts. They form the lens through which you see and interact with the world. Interestingly, your brain selectively filters information and evidence from the environment to support its existing beliefs. It will turn a blind eye to anything contradictory, which is why many of your beliefs will feel like facts and truths when in reality they are not.

In fact, as humans we form our beliefs first and then we seek supporting evidence. This is great news if your beliefs are positive and in favor of your growth, but what if they are not?

To illustrate how this all comes together, consider a situation that may occur during the workday as a dentist.

Imagine you are having a difficult day at the office. You are running behind schedule and a restoration you recently did has fractured and must be re-done. One of your patients is having sensitivity after a crown you recently cemented. Then to top it all off, you start the access for a molar root canal, only to perforate. You are unsure of how to manage it, so you muster up the courage to tell the patient what has happened and send them off with a referral to the endodontist and some pain medication.

If we put ten different clinicians in that same scenario, we would get ten different reactions and responses.

One dentist may think: “Everyone makes mistakes but I’m going to figure out where I went wrong so I can do better.” This thought would cause her to feel determined. As a result, she may take a relevant continuing education course, seek mentorship, practice access cavities on extracted teeth, and shadow a more experienced colleague.

In time, she’ll become increasingly competent in molar root canals. If this becomes her modus operandi every time a setback occurs, it will always be viewed as an opportunity for growth. She will continue to demonstrate excellence and commitment to her craft.

Another dentist may think, “I’m never touching another molar again! I’m not cut out for this and now the patient and the endodontist will know that I’m not competent.” These thoughts may lead to feelings of shame or inadequacy. As a result, she may sit alone in her office and avoid interacting with her assistant and staff. She may avoid trying any molar root canal procedures in the future. When other challenges arise, such as missing several IAN blocks, she may use it as evidence to support her belief that “she is incompetent.”

The net result is that she loses the opportunity for professional growth, thereby limiting herself. If this becomes her modus operandi every time a setback happens, she will end up playing small in her career and limiting her potential. She may also feel miserable, unfulfilled, and burned out at work.

This is just one specific example demonstrating the power of thoughts when it comes to setbacks and failures in dentistry.

In a broader context, imagine you frequently go into work thinking about litigation and how at any point in time a patient may file a complaint against you. If this is something you frequently focus on, it may generate a feeling of fear when it comes to providing treatment, particularly anything outside of your comfort zone. When you act from a place of fear, you may fail to communicate effectively and forget to give your patient a consent form prior to the procedure outlining possible risks. You may also forget or overlook an important step during the procedure itself.

From a physiological perspective, fear impairs your cerebral cortex, which is the part of your brain involved in reasoning and judgement. Making sound decisions and thinking with clarity becomes a challenge.

So, what can we do to create thoughts and patterns that help in our growth?

Efficiency Is the Brain’s Best Friend

If you haven’t been actively paying attention to and challenging your current thoughts, beliefs, and narratives, you are not alone. The human brain is wired for survival. It seeks to avoid pain, seek pleasure, and conserve energy, best known as the motivational triad.

The brain likes patterns, efficiency, and certainty. It prefers things that have proven to work in the past and that have guaranteed your survival, regardless of whether they were in favour of your growth and happiness or not.

Most of us function on autopilot. Our patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving have created neural pathways that are efficient, well-established, and require minimal energy expenditure.

They are akin to the many background processes that are running on your laptop, without your awareness.

Challenging your status quo, questioning your current beliefs, and trying to create change will always be met with resistance from your brain. It will provide you with the most convincing reasons why what you are wanting to do is a bad idea and why it will never work.

Recycling limiting beliefs and thought patterns is more comfortable, predictable, and requires less energy expenditure.

This is one of the biggest reasons why creating lasting change can be challenging and why many people give up on their goals and dreams, before giving themselves a fighting chance. In fact, research has shown that 92% of people don’t reach their New Year’s goals.

But the good news is that as human beings, we have a higher brain called a pre-frontal cortex. Our brain is not a static organ, but has neuroplasticity, the ability to form new thoughts and patterns. We can form new beliefs, and live our lives with intention, rather than always feeling out of control and at the mercy of our limiting beliefs.

How to Tell if Your Beliefs Are Serving You

The most reliable way to know if the beliefs you have are serving you is to look at the results you currently have. This can be in any area of your life such as career success and professional development, money/finances, weight loss, personal relationships and so on.

If what you have created in your life is not in line with what you want, then you would benefit from some honest self-reflection and introspection. Behind every unwanted result, is one or more negative thoughts.

This is where journaling can be so valuable. Taking the time to reflect and write down your thoughts and feelings can be indispensable.

The questions below can help serve as a useful starting point once you’ve picked a result in your life that you are not happy with. If you can approach this exercise from a place of curiosity rather than judgement, you will have better success with it.

1. What is my current problem?
2. Why?
3. What do I want to create for myself instead?
4. Why?
5. Do I think achieving X outcome is a real possibility for me? Why or why not?

Once you have read your answers over, you may uncover one or more negative thoughts or beliefs. At this point, do not panic or criticize yourself, your newfound awareness is a monumental step forward.

Once you have identified a negative thought, it’s time to get curious and consider the questions below:

• Why am I choosing to think this?
• How does it make me feel when I think this way?
• How do I show up when I think this way?
• How is what I’m thinking not true?

Inevitably, life will present each one of us with unique and challenging circumstances, some of which we have very little control over.

Our power and control always lie within ourselves. This means how we choose to think, what we choose to believe, and ultimately, how we choose to show up, regardless of the circumstances at hand.

Just as you may watch your diet and choose to fuel your body with nutritious and healthy foods, it is prudent to be mindful of the thoughts you feed your brain. It could make all the difference in the story of your life.

References

1. Arden, J.B. (2010). Rewire your brain. Hoboken, N.J. Wiley.
2. Diamond, D. (n.d.). Just 8% of People Achieve Their New Year’s Resolutions. Here’s How They Do It. Forbes. [Accessed 28 Dec. 2021].
3. Dr, K. (2010). Neural Plasticity: 4 Steps to Change Your Brain & Habits. Authenticity Associates.
4. Grayling, A.C. (2011). Psychology: How we form beliefs. Nature, 474(7352), pp.446–447. [Nature].
5. Northwestern Medicine (2021). The Truth Behind Fear. Northwestern Medicine.
6. Psychology Tools. (n.d.). Thoughts in CBT. [Psychology Tools].
7. Shermer, M. (2011). The Believing Brain. Scientific American, 305(1), pp.85–85. [Scientific American].