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.” 

Many years ago, when I was first trying to create a successful dental practice, I fell in love with the word “production.” I believed that production was the key to success, so I read everything I could to become more productive.  

I took courses.

In the early years, there were so many courses that centered around how to efficiently double and triple book, how to bring in more “warm bodies,” how to sell more dentistry, and how to utilize more staff to get more done. I never felt like these strategies were the answer to my production issues. I barely became more efficient, and I never became more effective as I just ran myself down. 

In my books, I have written about my issues with stress, which I believe eventually initiated adult-onset diabetes. Through it all, I continued my quest to be productive. In those years I truly learned to become more effective rather than more efficient. Reading Stephen Covey’s First Things First was extremely helpful to prioritize my work and life. But I found that was only part of the solution. The real problem for me was not managing my time. It was managing my energy.  

Diabetes became my blessing and my curse.

In my quest to control high blood sugar and the fatigue that comes with it, I found more energy. I found more mental and emotional clarity as well. A fog was lifted. My diabetes forced me to eat better and to exercise.  

I remember listening to some of Anthony Robbin’s tapes in which he tells the story of living in a small apartment in southern California, being extremely overweight and feeling like a loser. The first thing he did was to exercise. I did too. Slowly at first, I began to run. I built up my time and distance. Now, twenty-five years later, my routine includes six hours per week in the gym, running and lifting and six hours per week doing hot Yoga. The results have been nothing short of amazing. My diabetes is under control, I lost weight, I multiplied my energy level and mental clarity went way beyond what I expected. 

My moods improved, I enjoyed my work more, patient behaviors didn’t get to me as much, my work improved, I learned new techniques and took more continuing education, and most importantly, I had the energy to have a life outside of work.