Self-Care Awareness Month aims to remind us that taking care of ourselves is essential. We all tend to neglect self-care in our busy everyday lives. As health care professionals, it is important to remember that self-care is crucially important in order to provide quality dental care to our members.

Working in a dental office can expose dental practitioners and their staff to a wide variety of elements that can affect their health. Consider the following recommendations to incorporate into your office routines to help ensure the safety of everyone in your office:

• Stay up-to-date with all best practices for infection control and sterilization.
• Schedule and complete the recommended periodic maintenance on all x-ray equipment.
• Address stress points directly with all staff and encourage collaboration to find solutions that work for the entire team. Establish and maintain open lines of communication to encourage full adoption of new behaviors, if necessary.

For more information about maintaining health and wellness and managing stress for dental professionals, please explore these resources:

• https://www.ada.org/resources/practice/health-and-wellness
• https://prodentaldesigns.com/blog/tips-overcome-stress-dental-professionals