New ADA course offers strategies for supporting dentists’ mental health

March 18 marks Health Workforce Well-Being Day

In honor of Health Workforce Well-Being Day on March 18, a new continuing education course from the American Dental Association offers practical strategies and tools to support mental health, reduce burnout and promote resilience among dentists and their teams.

Putting Your Oxygen Mask on First: Prioritizing Health and Well-Being in Dentistry, an hour-long course worth one CE credit, explores current data on the wellness of dental professionals and highlights resources available to them. Through the course, participants will recognize the importance of safeguarding their mental and physical health, examine the ADA’s advocacy efforts to support dental workforce well-being, and understand the significance of Health Workforce Well-Being Day and the ADA’s ongoing initiatives.

“Dentistry is an incredibly rewarding profession, but it can also be demanding. To ensure safe, high‑quality patient care and maintain a strong, stable workforce, dentists and their teams must prioritize their own well‑being,” said Jennifer Thompson, D.D.S., chair of the ADA Council on Dental Practice and course co-presenter. “This ADA CE course highlights why intentional self‑care is essential in daily practice and connects dental professionals with ADA and national resources designed to support their health and resilience.”

The course will discuss the Dental Well-Being Index, an anonymous and validated tool developed by Mayo Clinic to assess well-being across six domains, and other ergonomic and mental health resources available at ADA.org/wellness. The Dental Well-Being Index is available at no cost to member and nonmember dentists, dental students and team members. Subha Giri, B.D.S., a researcher at Mayo Clinic and the lead author of the validation study for the index, is the other presenter of the ADA course.

March 18 marks the anniversary of the passage of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, the only federal law dedicated to preventing suicide and reducing occupational burnout, mental health conditions and stress for health care professionals. The law is named after Lorna Breen, M.D., an emergency physician who died by suicide in April 2020 after treating COVID-19 patients. The ADA is part of the ALL IN Wellbeing First for Healthcare coalition led by the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation.

To register for the ADA course, visit engage.ada.org. Member dentists can use the code WELL26 for complimentary access during the month of March.