Stress suppression: why pushing through is holding you back

Rana Al-Falaki explains how changing from suppression to management of stress could transform your performance, your practice, and your life.

Ask any dental clinician how they manage stress, and most will give you some version of the same answer: ‘I just get on with it.’ It is, in many ways, the default setting of the profession. We are trained to perform under pressure, to hold composure in the surgery whatever is happening internally, and to keep moving regardless of how the day feels. In dentistry, pushing through is not just accepted – it is quietly admired.

But here is what that stoicism is costing you. And it is more than you might think.

Dentistry consistently ranks among the most stressful professions in the UK. Figures from the British Dental Association suggest that stress-related issues affect up to three quarters of the profession. Burnout has become a quiet epidemic sitting at the heart of dentistry, yet the dominant cultural response remains the same: keep going, and do not show it.

The question worth exploring is not whether dentistry is stressful – it clearly is – but whether the way most of us have been taught to think about stress is actually making things worse. Because the latest evidence suggests it might be.

‘Stress is part of the job – you just have to push through’