By Sara Jalloul, Orthodontic Therapist & Student Dental Therapist
Burnout does not occur in isolation. When one member of the dental team struggles, the impact ripples out across colleagues, patients, and the wider organisation. [3]
Impact on teams
Within teams, burnout often shows up first as subtle shifts: morale dips, sickness absence increases, small conflicts flare more easily, and the humour disappears from the day. Colleagues take on additional workload to cover for unwell or disengaged team members, feeding a cycle of overwork and resentment. Over time, this contributes to higher staff turnover, the loss of experienced team members, and increasing pressure on those who remain. [8]
The emotional burden intensifies as team members witness each other struggle but feel unsure whether it is “safe” to speak up. Without structures for open discussion and support, burnout silently erodes trust and psychological safety in the workplace. [3]
Impact on patients
Burnout also changes the way we show up for patients. Reduced empathy and emotional exhaustion can lead to shorter consultations, less eye contact, and a sense of detachment that patients readily perceive. Research consistently links burnout with weaker therapeutic relationships, decreased patient satisfaction, and more frequent complaints. [6]
In orthodontic practice, this may look like a clinician who no longer has the bandwidth to explore patient concerns about aesthetics or discomfort, or who becomes less tolerant of missed appointments and non-compliance. Patients may experience this as feeling “talked at” rather than listened to, undermining trust and adherence.
Impact on organisations
At the organisational level, the cumulative effect of burnout is profound. Recruitment becomes harder in practices known for high stress or poor support. Absenteeism rises, leading to costly locum cover and appointment cancellations. The dental workforce recruitment and retention crisis in the UK has already been well-documented – burnout is one of its leading drivers. [8]
These issues compound existing challenges, such as NHS contract pressures and access difficulties, creating a feedback loop where system stress fuels staff burnout, which in turn worsens system performance. Left unaddressed, burnout gradually erodes the foundations of practice – often unnoticed until the damage is unmistakable. [4]
Breaking free from burnout – a multi-level approach
Burnout cannot be solved at a single level. Sustainable change requires coordinated action from individuals, teams, and system leaders. [9]
Individual strategies
- Awareness and early recognition: regularly check in with yourself for signs such as chronic fatigue, cynicism, sleep disturbance, or feeling like you’re “just going through the motions”.
- Micro-breaks and recovery pauses: even 1–2 minutes of breath work, stretching, or stepping away between patients can reduce physiological arousal and help reset focus.
- Reflective practice and journaling: brief structured reflection at the end of the day helps process emotional load, make sense of challenging encounters, and consolidate learning.
- Continuing professional development: engaging in CPD that feels meaningful can restore a sense of progress and mastery, countering feelings of stagnation.
Team-based strategies
- Peer support and buddy systems: regular check-ins, informal debriefs after difficult sessions, and shared responsibility for complex cases can reduce isolation and normalise help-seeking.
- Normalising wellbeing conversations: leaders and team members can model non-judgemental discussions about stress and mental health, making it acceptable to say “I’m struggling”.
- Rotating challenging cases: avoid concentrating the most demanding patients or clinics on one clinician; spread the emotional load more evenly.
- Recognition and celebration: intentionally highlighting small wins, positive feedback, and team achievements helps balance the emotional labour of the work.
System and leadership strategies
- Rota design with recovery built in: incorporate buffer time, realistic activity targets, and predictable scheduling to reduce chronic overload.
- Provision of wellbeing resources: ensure access to counselling, employee assistance programmes, peer support, and, where possible, protected time for wellbeing activities.
- Leadership training in compassionate culture: leaders who understand burnout and model healthy boundaries create safer environments for honest conversations and early intervention.
- Embedding wellbeing metrics: monitor burnout, sickness absence, turnover, and staff feedback alongside clinical and financial indicators, treating them as core measures of system health.
- Policy alignment: integrate wellbeing commitments into contracts, performance frameworks, induction processes, and safety protocols so that support is not seen as an optional extra.
The Wellbeing Support for the Dental Team resource, developed in collaboration with the BDJ and launched in 2021, exemplifies this system-level approach, recommending that wellbeing be placed at the heart of practice policy rather than added on when problems arise. [9] The systematic review by Plessas and colleagues (2022) further underlines this, concluding that individual-level interventions alone are insufficient and that organisation-directed approaches are more effective in sustaining improvements to dental workforce mental health. [10]
In addition, a range of external support mechanisms are available to dental professionals, including services provided by indemnity organisations and professional bodies. For example, Dental Protection offers access to confidential counselling and wellbeing support for its members. Signposting and normalising access to these services can offer an important additional route of support for clinicians experiencing stress or burnout.
References
[1] Collin, V., Toon, M., O’Selmo, E., Reynolds, L., & Whitehead, P. (2019). A survey of stress, burnout and well-being in UK dentists. British Dental Journal, 226(1), 40–49. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2019.6
[2] Dental Protection. (2025, February 26). Two-thirds of dental professionals burnt out and exhausted. Medical Protection Society Limited. https://www.dentalprotection.org/uk/articles/two-thirds-of-dental-professionals--burnt-out-and-exhausted
[3] Knights, J., Young, L., Humphris, G., & Newton, T. (2025). Me, we, they: identifying the key stressors affecting the dental team – findings from the MINDSET UK Survey 2023. British Dental Journal, 239, 196–202. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-025-8645-z
[4] General Dental Council. (2021). Mental health and wellbeing in dentistry: A rapid evidence assessment. GDC. https://www.gdc-uk.org/about-us/what-we-do/research/our-research-library/detail/report/mental-health-and-wellbeing-in-dentistry-a-rapid-evidence-assessment
[5] World Health Organization. (2019, May 28). Burn-out an occupational phenomenon: International Classification of Diseases. WHO. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases
[6] Hodkinson, A., Zhou, A., Johnson, J., Geraghty, K., Riley, R., Zhou, A., Panagopoulou, E., Chew-Graham, C. A., Peters, D., Esmail, A., & Panagioti, M. (2022). Associations of physician burnout with career engagement and quality of patient care: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ, 378, e070442. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070442
[7] Dental Protection. (2019). Breaking the burnout cycle: keeping dentists and patients safe. Medical Protection Society Limited. https://www.dentalprotection.org/docs/dentalprotectioninternationallibraries/dpl-publications/ireland/1907310561-ire-dp-burnout-policy-paper.pdf
[8] Evans, D., Mills, I., Burns, L., Bryce, M., & Witton, R. (2023). The dental workforce recruitment and retention crisis in the UK. British Dental Journal, 234(8), 573–577. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-023-5737-5
[9] Cameron, J., Hannon, L., Keeton, R., McMullan, R., Nayee, S., O’Connor, R., Shirlaw, P., & White, S. (2021). New mental health and wellbeing resource for the dental team launched. British Dental Journal, 230(3), 120. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-021-2685-9
[10] Plessas, A., Paisi, M., Bryce, M., Burns, L., O’Brien, T., Witton, R., & Hanoch, Y. (2022). Mental health and wellbeing interventions in the dental sector: a systematic review. Evidence-Based Dentistry, 23(4), 90–98. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41432-022-0831-0
[11] Hallett, G., Witton, R., & Mills, I. (2022). A survey of mental wellbeing and stress among dental therapists and hygienists in South West England. British Dental Journal. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-022-5357-5