Bouncing back: Rana Al-Falaki dives into bouncebackability and uncovers the secret to resilience in dentistry.
Have you ever felt knocked down by a patient complaint, a treatment that didn’t go as planned or a difficult conversation with a team member? It happens to all of us. The real question is: how quickly do you get back up?
What is bouncebackability?
Bouncebackability – the ability to recover quickly from setbacks – is a skill every dental professional needs.
Dentistry is full of pressure: patient expectations, clinical perfection, business demands, and the ever-present fear of a complaint landing on your desk from the General Dental Council (GDC). The difference between feeling crushed by these pressures and thriving in practice comes down to one thing: resilience.
Why does resilience matter in dentistry?
Resilience isn’t just about mental toughness; it has tangible benefits for individuals, teams, and the business as a whole:
- For you: studies show that dentists with high resilience experience lower stress levels, reduced burnout and better job satisfaction. In a 2023 survey, 67% of dentists admitted to feeling stressed at work, but those who had undergone resilience training reported significantly lower anxiety levels
- For your team: resilient teams communicate better, handle change more effectively, and experience fewer conflicts. Research in dental practices found that workplaces with strong resilience training had 40% fewer staff resignations
- For the business: a thriving, engaged team directly impacts patient satisfaction, retention, and profitability. Studies show that dental practices with strong leadership and resilience training see a 20% increase in revenue due to improved team performance and patient loyalty.
A story of bouncebackability: Dr AS’s journey
Let me tell you about Dr AS, a respected practice owner and truly good dentist who would go out of his way to help his patients and his team. But when I met him at a Meddent NAIL-IT Experience event, he was a shadow of his former self.
He explained that he had withdrawn from his team, no longer made suggestions for improvements, and had stopped taking risks, playing it safe with both his dentistry and practice growth, which had of course become stagnant. He didn’t know how to get back to himself and all attempts to ‘snap out of it’ had failed to date.
That disconnect – between who he was deep down and how he was acting – was eating away at him. His confidence was shot, and it was affecting his patient care, his relationships at work, and even his family life.
The cause? A long-standing and loyal patient had gone to the GDC with a complaint. No warning, no chance to resolve it first. For Dr AS, the worst part was that the entire practice knew about it.
‘When everyone knows, they make judgments about you, even when they weren’t there and don’t actually know the truth. You can’t help but feel every look they give you is disapproving or questioning your decisions,’ he told me. ‘I feel guilty, even when I know I’m not.’
He was paralysed by false narratives: that those in authority had all the power, that he wasn’t worthy of respect anymore, that he couldn’t trust anyone.
The breakthrough
I introduced him to my write, read, tell (WRT) storytelling system, designed to help reframe and release emotional weight. These are the steps I took him through:
Write. He wrote out the entire story from start to finish: his emotions, frustrations and anger. Exactly what happened from his perspective, what he would have wished had been different, what he would love to be able to say out loud in retaliation. As much of a proclamation of ‘it isn’t fair!’ as he felt justified to do. No filters, no holding back
Read. Someone else, another dentist, read his story back to him, word for word. Hearing his own words aloud gave him a new perspective. It allowed him to detach from the raw emotion and see his beliefs for what they were – stories, not truths. Yet it had been a story he was stuck in. It allowed him to feel all the compassion for himself that he rightly deserved instead of the berating he had been giving himself and others, and he witnessed first-hand compassion from the partner reading the story to him – realising how he did indeed have people who cared and were on his side; not everyone was out to get him
Tell. I helped him to craft a three-minute version of his story, this time with a different lens: one of what he experienced in a relatable way to others and demonstrating what he learned and turning it into an opportunity for growth. Exposing the strength he had, his determination to move forward and how he could also use his story to now not only connect with others, but also inspire them with his journey. He performed it in front of the group, turning his vulnerability into a tool for powerful leadership, connection, trust, authenticity and growth.
That was the moment things changed. He let go of the belief that he was powerless. He saw the situation for what it was – a challenge, not a life sentence – and he found the freedom to engage again, to take risks, to lead.
The next step
After that breakthrough, I worked with Dr AS and his team using NAIL-IT’s ‘famfam’ framework – practical strategies to embed resilience long-term:
- Focus to create foundation – getting clarity on what really matters and where energy should be directed
- Affirm to embed – using affirmations to reinforce self-belief and confidence
- Make use of the past – extracting lessons from experiences without dwelling in them and turning them into opportunities
- Failing is not failure – understanding that setbacks are part of progress, not a reason to stop. If a failure occurs, it doesn’t mean you are a failure
- Anticipate to acquire knowledge – preparing for challenges instead of fearing them. Using past experiences to grow and mitigate repetitions of mishaps
- Model through a mentor – we mentored and coached Dr AS and his team, and he attended mastermind groups and live experiences as part of Meddent’s platinum membership, giving him the chance to learn from others with relatable experiences in all things dentistry and life.
Building a resilient practice
Resilience isn’t just about ‘getting over it’ – it’s a set of skills you can develop and benefits both individuals and teams. A resilient practice is one where:
- Team members feel safe to make mistakes and learn from them
- Stress is managed effectively, reducing burnout and improving job satisfaction
- Leadership encourages adaptability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
We worked with Dr AS’s team on the developing these seven core competencies of resilience:
- Emotional regulation – managing your emotions rather than letting them overwhelm
- Impulse control – responding thoughtfully instead of reacting in stressful situations
- Optimism – maintaining a positive outlook, even when facing adversity
- Causal analysis – learning from mistakes without blaming yourself or others
- Empathy – understanding how others feel and responding appropriately
- Self-efficacy – believing in your ability to handle difficulties and overcome challenges
- Reaching out – seeking support and turning difficulties into opportunities.
Strength through resilience training
Resilience isn’t about avoiding difficulties, it’s about handling them differently. Whether it’s a GDC complaint, a challenging patient or a difficult period in business or your personal life, setbacks don’t have to define you. What defines you is how you bounce back.
Dr AS rediscovered his confidence, his passion for dentistry, and his ability to lead. And the same is possible for you.
If you want to develop true bouncebackability for yourself and your team, start with the strategies here and if you are ready to go deeper, let’s talk about how you and your team can truly nail-it!
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