I know what you’re thinking. Why on earth would I need another dental magazine? 

There are many other dental magazines out there that focus on either business or clinician improvement. But I still haven’t come across one which addresses the entirety of who we are as people in dentistry. We are each individual who faces specific challenges unique to who we are. We continually overcome fears and tackle new challenges. Those inner workings of our lives should be celebrated and broadcasted so others can learn about who we are at our core, not just as dental professionals.

I created this magazine to focus on the dental lifestyle. So we have one place to talk about how we balance practicing clinically, owning a dental practice, and succeeding in our personal life. When used correctly, dentistry is a vehicle to help you go out and live a fruitful life. But we can only benefit from dentistry if we figure out how to balance each of these three things. Without this balance, we can lose our purpose and the excitement which brought us into this career.

So, I’d like to introduce you to Dental Lifestyles, the quarterly magazine focused on inspiring you to level up your personal life so your professional life can level up with it.

This magazine is so named because of the deep need in the dental industry to improve both the success and fulfillment of doctors all around the world. And the truth is, success and fulfillment are not a one-size-fits-all plan. Everyone’s definition of success is different. Everyone’s fulfillment comes from different things. So I designed Dental Lifestyles to give you a broad array of content to help you improve your business in a way that improves your personal life. I also designed Dental Lifestyles to share content to introduce you to lifestyle opportunities that other dental professionals have used to improve their fulfillment.

In other words, Dental Lifestyles is going to help you improve your results to generate more income and time for you to enjoy however you want. Then, I’m going to introduce you to opportunities for enjoying that extra time and money today, tomorrow, and well into the future.

You will find that one common theme with the business content will be leveraged. Our contributors will share many ways for you to make more money by doing less, not more. They will share how to increase production without having to increase how many hours you or your team have to work. And they will share how to do all that while making your time in the office more enjoyable.

My goal for Dental Lifestyles is to help you find more joy at work and at home

And just like in business, that means sharing information about how to use leverage in your personal life. Without that leverage point, we are often left empty. We become unsteady, unsure, and uninspired when we face the challenges ahead. We lose our passion and can become frustrated with the very career we were so passionate about when we began. So we need this personal leverage point, this anchor which centers us so we can perform better both clinically and in our business.

I believe the idea of your dental career means much more than just running a business or practicing clinically. For me, it encompasses all you do, both in your professional and personal life. Who you are at your work is greatly affected by your home life. In order to take both our business and clinical ability to the next level, we need to level up ourselves. We need to focus on who we are, our goals, and what pulls us out of bed in the morning. Because all of this plays into the success of your dental career and we cannot take steps forward if we lag behind in our personal development.

I like to think of it like a hamburger. The bottom bun is your business revenue and the top bun is your clinical capability. Both of these are highly important, however, a lot of people only focus on growing either the top or the bottom bun. But a hamburger made only of buns wouldn’t be a hamburger would it? You need everything in the middle: the meat, the pickles, onion, tomato, lettuce, ketchup, and maybe even some cheese and bacon (or whatever else you like on your hamburgers). But unfortunately, we often lose focus on what is in the middle because we are so worried about the top and bottom bun. The middle is our life. The things which bring us joy and excite us. Our family, our friends, our passion projects, our art. The things we work for. The middle is our why and what motivates us to keep going. 

We cannot lose focus on our personal lives.

Many of us forget if we let our personal lives grow, our businesses and our clinical ability will grow naturally. A focus on personal development often leads to improvement in your overall mental health and your relationships. It gives you the ability to be a better leader and to communicate and empathize with your clients. You will be amazed to see the difference when you make personal development as much of a priority as your professional development. We often have more confidence and even stand a little taller when we take our personal lives as seriously as our professional lives. It allows us to fill ourselves up so we don’t pour from an empty cup.

It doesn’t matter what this looks like for you. Whether it’s art, physical activity, cooking, community service, growing your family, or simply reading a good book. All of them lead to a more fulfilled personal life and the ability to better focus in your professional life.

My goal is to help you become inspired by the stories of people just like you.

To see what other dental professionals do within their own professional careers and how they work to continually find balance in their life. We will cover personal growth, challenges overcome, ideas, and personal successes. Because if we don’t let the joy of life (or the meat) exist just as much as the business and clinical side do, you won’t have any meat in your bun at all! And that makes for a terrible hamburger.

So let’s get inspired together!