By Paul A. Henny, DDS 

Coping with Stress and Trauma 

If you hang around me long enough, the conversation will eventually turn toward the amazing work of Gabor Maté, MD. Maté is a Canadian of Hungarian decent. He is also Jewish, and barely survived the Nazi invasion of Budapest. He has spent his life studying the effects of trauma on the body, both physical and emotional, and he has authored several books. WHEN A BODY SAYS NO is a favorite of mine. 

All of Maté’s work has a common theme: how we individually cope with stress, and when it’s severe enough, trauma. He also advances the bold theory that most of our diseases and dysfunctions today are self-inflicted, even cancer and autoimmune disorders. They are self-Inflicted in the sense that our body does it to itself in its dysfunctional attempt to cope with chronic stress.  

Maté maintains that chronic stress, particularly in a young child, causes the child to dial back their sensitivity to the environment, to stop paying close attention, because it is or might be too painful. 

If you can follow this line of thought, then you will be led to better understand Mate’s theory regarding the common mental dysfunction ADHD, and even some of the milder forms of autism. Maté states that a stressed mother releases stress hormones into the placenta, and when chronically present, these can negatively influence brain development resulting in autism in some cases.* 

Note: Stress can also originate externally from toxins in the environment and food, and from working and living in toxic cultures. 

Today’s Toxic Culture and It’s Impact on Dental Practice 

Those of you who have heard me speak, have heard me say this before. We live in a very toxic culture today. We all try to cope with too much information, too many decisions, and too many stressful issues lingering in the back of our mind left unresolved. And the outcome is similar: we tend to dial back on our sensitivity to the environment. 

Consequently: 

• We start to think of others as being problems to be resolved instead of people. 

• We stop sensing other people’s feelings. 

• We stop paying attention to our gut and intuition. 

• We start blaming instead of understanding. 

• We start manipulating instead of listening. 

Combine all of these together, it isn’t hard to imagine the daily functioning of the average dental practice: 

• Detached 

• Unauthentic 

• Reductionistic 

• Money-centric 

• High stress 

Hence, lots of personal dissatisfaction occurs among staff and patients. 

Getting Back to Whole-Self, Whole-Person Dentistry 

Whole-person dentistry takes into consideration the whole person physically and emotionally. It requires us to be sensitive to our patients feelings, expectations, and experiences. It also requires us to be sensitive to our own feelings, because without them, we can’t sense others and the world around us accurately.  

Without sensitivity, we work through the day like an autistic child in a bubble, and then wonder why our patients don’t listen to us or take our advice. Thus, the road to true person-centered care must first run through us. And that needs to be a life-long pursuit —the process of getting back in touch with who we truly are inside and how we feel. THAT is what L. D. Pankey was trying to tell us when he said, “Know Yourself.” 

Culture Fit Versus Culture Add 

Robyn Reis, Dental Practice Coach 

When you are hiring team members, you are likely thinking about how those you interview will fit into your practice culture. Do their values align with yours? Do you share similar backgrounds and philosophies? A business’s culture is a system of shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that influence how people dress, act, and perform their roles. Most practice owners work hard to have everyone get along, support one another, and work as a team to give every patient a wonderful experience. So, it’s only natural to want to find someone who fits into that culture when a position opens up. 

In the HR world, recruiters have a different approach – they are moving away from “culture fit” towards “culture add.” What does this mean exactly? A great mentor of mine, Sheri Kay, says it best, “People come together in their similarities, but they grow together in their differences.” 

On the pages of Harvard Business Review, Forbes Magazine, Fast Company, Inc., and Entrepreneur, you will read that more and more companies are moving away from the traditional culture fit that creates a monoculture where everybody has shared similarities and there is no growth. Instead, they are recreating a culture that is open to new ideas, open to conversations where people poke holes in traditional ideas and say, “Hey, what if we did this? This is what we think we want to do. Now let’s figure out why it will or will not work.” 

In recruiting a hygienist for a client, one of the candidates stood out to me. In addition to her clinical hygiene education, she also had a financial background which represented a “culture add” for this particular practice. She had a greater understanding of goal setting, the finances of the business, and how to create a profitable hygiene department. She ended up being a fantastic and productive member of their team. 

When you are in the hiring process, do you think about adding to your culture? Diverse backgrounds correlate with more diverse problem-solving and decision-making processes. In studied corporations, diversity leads to increased profitability.  

In dentistry, diverse backgrounds can lead to the attraction and retention of diverse patients. Diverse backgrounds can fill in operational holes in your business model. Does a candidate have a background in psychology, finance, education, customer service, computer IT, office administration in another industry, or marketing? Does a candidate speak a second language that will be an asset in your community? Is a candidate artistic, an exceptional writer, a community volunteer, or actively participating in other activities? 

During each interview, seek to learn what the candidate could add to your practice culture in addition to culture fit. After talking about a candidate’s resume and interests, talk about situations that occur in the practice and current needs. Ask if the candidate has ever been in similar situations and how they handled them. Do the answers indicate personality traits and strengths that will add to (complement) the team? Ask the open question, “Based on your personal experience, what insights could you add to this situation?” 

In today’s competitive market for talented team members, consider what a new hire with additional skills could add to your culture and what these new contribution possibilities could be for an amazing patient and team experience. Happy hiring!