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New Mexico Dental Journal, Summer 2016
W
e have all had times where
we needed support to get
through a tough situation.
Sometimes life gets in the way and it
can easily carry through to your dentistry
and your career. I’m talking about those
times when you need support from
somebody different from a loved friend,
spouse, or family member; sometimes
you need help from somebody who can
relate to you and your profession a little
more. Whether it be problems at work
or probably more often problems away
from work that carry over into your
professional life, these times can be truly
testing. The best way to respond to these
times is to have a colleague as a resource
to turn to. Talking to other dentists to
help work through the problem can be
the best thing, and possibly the most
underutilized outlet. For one thing,
relying on other dentists can take your
mind from that negative place, off of the
bad and back to a place where you enjoy:
doing dentistry and thinking about how
you can help your patients. Another is
that they can relate to you in a different
way than most other people can. Better
yet, there are probably dentists out there
that have gone through the same or a
similar situation you are being faced with,
and they can give you first-hand knowl-
edge of how to deal with the problem
as well as how to balance the stresses of
our profession at the same time. We have
a great resource of dentists in our state
and the more you know and are able to
communicate with them the easier your
life may become when you are presented
with a personal challenge. And after it is
all said and done, you will be a better all
around dentist through the advice you
receive and implement into both your
life and practice. This metaphor is at
the core of what the NMDA represents;
the larger group of dentistry helping
better individual dentists and in turn
individual dentists bettering the group
and profession.
By Joe Gherardi, DDS—Albuquerque, NM
To join the Committee on New Dentist or for more information, contact Joe Gherardi at 505-293-6125.
There
for you
"when you
need support
from somebody
different from
a loved friend,
spouse, or
family member"
Committee on New Dentists