{"id":5321,"date":"2019-11-22T23:55:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T23:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/?p=5321"},"modified":"2019-11-23T00:08:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T00:08:50","slug":"the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Have you ever felt the tension between desiring excellence in your clinical dentistry but often feeling bound by perfectionism instead?  There&#8217;s a fine line between having a standard of excellence and being stuck with the counterfeit of perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Explore the below conversation as Allison and Shawn dive deeper into this very issue.  <\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"width: 100%; height: 170px; margin-bottom: 20px; border-radius: 10px; overflow:hidden;\"><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 170px;\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/5723381c-4ac3-4a39-83cb-0ea4dc702231\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Our mission here at The Authentic Dentist\u2120 is to be a resource to help you achieve more, while you grow in both profits and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the core of the authentic dentist is the belief that the answer to the current challenges in dentistry is dentists discovering that their greatest asset and point of differentiation is their personal brand \u2013 and that forming that brand out of their authentic selves is the best strategy for success in dentistry today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4>Listen above, or read the transcript below \ud83d\ude09 <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Today we&#8217;re going to talk about the\ndanger of perfectionism in dentistry. I am so excited about sharing right now\nand talking about this topic, Allison, because everything we&#8217;ve just been\ntalking about that we&#8217;re excited to share, this is something that is going to\nbe so valuable for dentists, young and old to hear, because really\nperfectionism is just something you guys have to live with. You&#8217;ve been\nconditioned to need to be perfect and great and everyone wants you to be\nperfect and great in your clinical dentistry. But, there&#8217;s definitely a danger\nof what that can do to you clinically though and personally in your practice.\nThat&#8217;s why I&#8217;m really excited about today&#8217;s topic. What is it you feel is\ncommon that maybe dentists experience around this topic of just perfectionism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Shawn, I think our training has\nbeen about everything we do to be clinically perfect. We spent four years of\nundergrad and then four years of dental school really learning how to have good\noutcomes, and we expect good outcomes. The public expects good outcomes.\nEveryone expects this level of perfectionism out of us that maybe isn&#8217;t\nactually possible and it puts a lot of pressure on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Where did this start? In your own\njourney where did this kind of notions of excellence and&#8230; because we talked\nabout it earlier, there&#8217;s this generalization that it&#8217;s okay that dentists are\ndetailed and they&#8217;re very meticulous, but it&#8217;s more than that. Why is it that\nthis kind of applies to all dentists? Probably especially a young dentist that\nare graduating school. Something about the way that you went through school. It\nkind of set you up to be this way. Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, probably when all of us\nstarted in elementary school we made straight A&#8217;s. I mean straight A&#8217;s through\nhigh school, probably straight A&#8217;s through college. My college was all math and\nI loved math because there was an answer. It wasn&#8217;t like an English paper where\nit was kind of mushy what an A or B was. I knew the answer. It was only one\nanswer because it was math. All of us have some science background where that&#8217;s\nsomewhat true, finding the answer. Then you go to dental school and dental\nschool is all about learning clinically the answer and putting everything\nperfect. Our instructors were really hard on us if something didn&#8217;t go well. I\nthink you graduate with that mindset that anything less than perfect, is just\nnot acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I remember I was probably a year out of dental school and practicing and I was so stressed. My husband asked me, &#8220;What is wrong?&#8221; And I blurted out that I should have the physique of Cory Everson. This is before your time, but she was a bodybuilder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Okay, sorry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; My house should look like Martha\nStewart&#8217;s. I should practice like Pete Dawson, who is a very famous dentist\nthat just passed away recently and I should be a mother like Carol Brady from\nthe Brady Bunch. I needed to be all those things wrapped into one. Well, none\nof those people have all those strengths. They only have one. So, I was being\ncompletely unreasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What happens if you don&#8217;t identify\nthis kind of strain of perfection day in, day out, week in, week out in your\npractice as you&#8217;re starting? What was it that you ended up feeling? Were you\nfeeling energized, practicing the way you wanted to, everything was great and\nyou just knew there was this expectation of you? What did that scene look like\nearly in your practice because of this perfectionism, that maybe you hadn&#8217;t\neven identified?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When I first started practicing,\nnothing was good enough because clearly when you first graduate you cannot be\nPete Dawson. You just can&#8217;t. I was constantly disappointed in myself and what I\nwas doing. I constantly felt like I was failing and I was really getting very\ndepressed and I didn&#8217;t want to go to work anymore. It wasn&#8217;t fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Really? Meaning it was that severe\nthat dentistry wasn&#8217;t, forget enjoyable, it was hard to even tolerate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It was hard to even tolerate and I\nactually loved dentistry and I love my patients, but that fear that something\nwould go wrong just became ominous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Was this even something that you feel like school prepared you for? To be aware that you might get to this point 18 months in, 24 months in, and all of a sudden you feel trapped because you can&#8217;t actually hit the target or you can&#8217;t hit those standards, or even if you&#8217;re hitting them, you can&#8217;t hit them perfectly, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I think school set us up for\nfailure there. They had said that everything was going to be just, I don&#8217;t\nknow, silk and roses. We had finally achieved. We were doctors. The world was\nour oyster and that&#8217;s not true. You never actually arrive at any point in your\nlife. You just get to a new place where you start a new journey. That&#8217;s been an\ninteresting lesson for me to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I think that&#8217;s great and just a\nreally quick anecdote for something that brought that to life in my life was\nwhen we first had our first child. I remember the delivery of our child was the\nsummit. In my opinion. I was just thinking, &#8220;Hey, once we have a child,\nthis nine month build up and we are successful if the child is just healthy.\nMommy&#8217;s healthy, child&#8217;s healthy.&#8221; And then all of a sudden the baby gets\ndelivered, and you&#8217;re like, &#8220;This is the start of the journey. It Isn&#8217;t\nthe summit.&#8221; Now, and I remember even for my wife, it was she now had to\nfigure out how to actually care for the baby outside of the womb where her body\nwas doing a really good job on its own taking caring of the baby in the womb.\nAll of a sudden it was like we thought just finished a race, so to speak, not\nrealizing the real journey and race had just started. I&#8217;m sure in some ways\nthat was a shock for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a dentist that&#8217;s graduating and feels like I&#8217;ve arrived, now I&#8217;m a doctor. I mean you can&#8217;t probably start your own practice straight out of dentistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Very few people do. You have too\nmuch debt. It&#8217;s just really hard to do that. Most people have to go work for\nsomeone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In this new, I&#8217;m starting a new\npractice, one of these shocks is what we&#8217;re talking about with perfectionism.\nNow, when in your journey did you ever have a moment where it was like a aha\nmoment or a real shift that kind of illuminated and brought this to light?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Like I said, my first two years\nafter I graduated from dental school, I worked in a lot of different practices.\nA day here, two days there. After two years, I started my own practice and at\nthat point I was getting pretty beaten down. Every day was such a struggle that\nI had done something wrong. Someone was mad at me. I just couldn&#8217;t be this\nperfect person that I wanted to be. I had joined the Dental Association and I\nwas the chair of the New Dentist Committee and I was supposed to give a talk. I\ndecided I&#8217;m just going to throw this out there. I printed off, now this is back\nin the day, I printed off a bunch of x-rays of things that I thought were\nfailures, other dentists and my failures and I brought them out and I had three\nolder dentists that came into a panel and I was hoping that they were going to\ngive me the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I presented in front of a whole group of young dentists, &#8220;This what went wrong,&#8221; and I presented it to the older dentists hoping that they would say, &#8220;Oh, well you should&#8217;ve done this.&#8221; And we have an answer. And that&#8217;s not what they said at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You were expecting they were going\nto be able to give an answer because you weren&#8217;t satisfied that you were having\noutcomes that weren&#8217;t acceptable and you were thinking, they&#8217;re going to teach\nyou or maybe give you advice on how to not have that outcome?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Yes, I wanted them to teach me how\nto never have bad outcomes. That was my plan. That is not what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What did they share with you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, the most entertaining one is\nI showed a x-ray with a root canal that I had done and the file was broken\ninside the root canal. I consider this to be a huge failure. I stopped doing\nthe root canal. I sent it over to an endodontist to finish. I was embarrassed\nand I decided I&#8217;m never going to do endo again. One of the panelists said,\n&#8220;Well, if you do root canals, files break.&#8221; As if that was just a\nfact, a statement. And he said, &#8220;In fact, that tooth broke your\nfile.&#8221; That was a totally different way of looking at things, but it was\ntrue. Some teeth are very hard to navigate and that doesn&#8217;t mean that we\nshouldn&#8217;t strive to do the very best we can, but bad outcomes are just part of\npractice and they just continue to say that over and over and over again as I\nwas presenting every single one of these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, to give context to the timing\nof this CE, were you able to just go and search for bad outcomes on the\ninternet and was this something that in certain Facebook groups or online\ngroups, you were able to be in a safe place and just share about bad outcomes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; No, this was 2004 so there was no\nway to search for something like that. Certainly if you did, you would just\nfind a malpractice suit and how it had been settled. You assumed that in the\nmalpractice suit, the dentist was a bad person, a bad dentist. The way we spoke\nabout that bad outcomes was always that it was a bad dentist. You did a bad\njob.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So it was a big deal for you to\nactually get up there and show some of the bad outcomes that you had had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It was incredibly difficult. I come\nfrom this Olympic weightlifting background. My father was a coach and the only\nway that you grew in weightlifting was you showed somebody what you did and\nthey would correct it, so you could get better. And every time your form got\nbetter, you lifted more weights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I assumed that that&#8217;s what I had to do. I had to be embarrassed and share this in order to grow, and I did, but it wasn&#8217;t quite the same way I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You were thinking that they were\ngoing to give you some sort of an answer again, so you could be perfect, robotic,\nand not have an outcome that was bad. But really what you learned was it wasn&#8217;t\nabout that, it was more about&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A lot of it was about verbal\nskills. How do you say there&#8217;s a bad outcome to a patient so that they\nunderstand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Understand that you&#8217;re human?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; That you&#8217;re human, and that some\nthings are just more difficult than others. And the other thing that we, that I\nlearned was that other people have bad outcomes. And I guess for some reason I\nassumed that everybody out there was doing perfect work all the time. Otherwise\nthey were bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So this is a pretty influential\nmoment in your journey in dentistry. What do you think would have happened if\nthe light bulb didn&#8217;t turn on in that moment and you didn&#8217;t receive this mindset\nof, &#8220;Oh my gosh, I didn&#8217;t realize I was operating under this crazy\nperfectionism of I just needed to be perfect.&#8221; Which wasn&#8217;t realistic and\nwas causing all the stress. If this moment hadn&#8217;t happened, I mean it&#8217;s\nprobably hard to think about, but what would have happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I&#8217;m afraid to think about what\nwould happen. I was pretty unhappy and I&#8217;m afraid that I would have continued\nto be more and more unhappy because you don&#8217;t get better with perfectionism.\nYou think that that&#8217;s keeping you in line and making you better. It&#8217;s not, it&#8217;s\nactually making it so you&#8217;re afraid. You&#8217;re afraid to do anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just step out of the box and try something because you really won&#8217;t be perfect at something you&#8217;ve never tried before. It was actually hindering me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And it seems one of the older\nthought patterns to this kind of reality was, &#8220;Hey, it&#8217;s not okay to have\nbad outcomes.&#8221; Where now, it sounds like bad outcomes is just part of a\nlife. It&#8217;s what you do to either learn from those bad outcomes, that&#8217;s\nimportant. Do you feel that&#8217;s fair? How have things shifted maybe in the last\n15 or 20 years around this area of normal? I don&#8217;t want to say normal because\nyour aim is still that tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It&#8217;s a constant tension because you\nnever want to have a bad Yelp review. That&#8217;s the worst, to be publicly\nhumiliated like that. And you never want to have a malpractice suit because\nthat can just destroy your livelihood and your practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So there&#8217;s constant, you feel like everything has to be excellent and perfect. And yet if you&#8217;re human, it doesn&#8217;t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So if there&#8217;s people struggling\nright now and maybe they haven&#8217;t had that light bulb moment and they&#8217;re still\noperating under the weight of, &#8220;I have to be something that I can&#8217;t be.\nAnd because of that, I&#8217;m not liking my dentistry. I&#8217;m terrified that I&#8217;m going\nto do something that&#8217;s either going to cause a Yelp review or malpractice. But\nat the same time, I want to grow in excellence, but I don&#8217;t want to be bound by\nthe toxins of perfection.&#8221; What are some of the tools or what are some of\nthe tips or what are some of the strategies that you might be able to encourage\nthem with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So it used to be that every time I\nlooked at the six month checkup, x-rays, we call them four bitewings. I was\nterrified that I would see something on that x-ray that I had done that wasn&#8217;t\nnice. And then I would focus all day on that one thing that was wrong. Instead\nof looking at the patient, I did 12 other fillings in there and they were all\nperfect. I saw 10 other patients. Every one of their radiographs were perfect,\nbut it didn&#8217;t matter. There was one thing and that one thing was going to\ndestroy me and I really felt that way, that one thing was going to destroy me.\nIt was keeping me in a prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Keeping you in a box. I know you\nmentioned, we were talking about, just kind of a growth mindset and just how\nyou manage change even incrementally in your practice instead of. 10 new\ninstruments all at once. Can you kind of elaborate on that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, one of the first things I did\nafter that continuing education as I decided to, to focus on my wins. So every\npatient, I would count how many things looked nice that I had done and it was\namazing the ratio there were very few things that I did that were wrong. It was\njust that that was what I was focused on, which made me feel like a failure. So\nonce I started doing that, I started seeing, okay, I am a good dentist, I&#8217;m\ndoing a of good in the world and I need to sort of own that and accept that I\nam a good dentist, but I&#8217;m not a perfect dentist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then the next thing I wanted to do was create a culture of excellence in my office. And I think that&#8217;s going to go back to the weightlifting where you can&#8217;t create a culture of excellence without some vulnerability, without being able to admit that there&#8217;s some imperfections and let&#8217;s look at them and make them better, rather than let&#8217;s hide them and be embarrassed about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; That&#8217;s really good, especially\nabout clarifying expectations. I know when we&#8217;re talking, you mentioned even\nthis new coaching habit that you&#8217;ve employed so that you&#8217;re not throwing\nperfectionism on your team because you have this really clear expectation of\nyourself, which you even have to manage giving yourself grace when you fall\nshort, you know? But how that transitions us to you leading your team&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It&#8217;s so easy to expect perfection\nout of your team because they&#8217;re a reflection of you and so therefore they have\nto be on all the time. But, that creates them living under a microscope and\nthat creates fear and the more fear that you give your team, the more they mess\nup. So it&#8217;s giving them some clear expectations and some grace when they make a\nmistake and just coaching them, not making them feel bad, but coaching, this is\nwhy we do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you create that encouraging environment, people can blossom. And I learned that in my family life too. I have two kids that are just like me, with this level of perfectionism. And it was not helpful for me to put that on them. In fact, I think it really hurt them and I had to back off and recognize that, well, they&#8217;re human too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; They&#8217;re going to make some\nmistakes. It was okay if you got a B, really, we would all live through it. And\nthey were experiencing the same issues that I was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And I think that&#8217;s really\nwonderful. And that&#8217;s why we&#8217;re wanting to talk about perfectionism today\nbecause it really can hinder people developing into who they really want to\nbecome. So I know when we were originally talking about just the topic of\nperfectionism, I was kind of going through, well, I&#8217;m not a dentist, I&#8217;m a\nbusiness owner, and as a business owner over the last 15 years, what ways has\nperfectionism kind of plagued me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the areas that I identified was when it came to shipping something, and in business, that&#8217;s a term we referred to, that just kind of describes, it&#8217;s easiest to view when you think of it like an author having a manuscript. It&#8217;s something they care about. They pour their life into it. Maybe they even view it as part of their life work, at that time, and yet in real time there comes to that moment of needing to send it to the publicist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You&#8217;re exposing yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Right. Find out if that publisher\nsays what you value is great, if they think it&#8217;s great. There&#8217;s that\nvulnerability to it. So, where it struck home with me is in business, there&#8217;d\nbe times where I would create something, whether it was a new business model\nserving a underserved market, whether it was tweaking our value proposition,\nwhich kind of brought forth this new offering that we are really excited about\nsharing in dentistry and then somehow in the board room or just because of some\nkind of working the idea out, I would tell myself the lie of perfection, I&#8217;d\nhear it. &#8220;It&#8217;s not ready yet. It&#8217;s not perfect. It&#8217;s not perfect.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And at some point I would end up talking myself out of actually just shipping it, which means sending it out publicly to be viewed into the marketplace. And what I really got robbed of was I was learning, I got robbed of real growth that happens when the market interacts with your idea and says, &#8220;Yeah, we really like this, but not this.&#8221; And you don&#8217;t find that out in the land of theory, in the boardroom. True experience and true knowledge comes once you&#8217;ve actually shipped something. So, I think back on the last 10 years, and I&#8217;m like, &#8220;Man, there&#8217;s a lot of times that perfectionism didn&#8217;t allow me to step up and just lead or even contribute, or risk, because I didn&#8217;t know how it was going to be.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So my thought is maybe there&#8217;s dentists out there, that there&#8217;s different areas of their practice or there&#8217;s something, some passion of theirs and they&#8217;re really wanting to see if they can step up and lead their team in a new way, or if they can lead their whole practice in the community in a new way. Because they&#8217;ve been inspired by something, just some thoughts that they&#8217;re having. But, that lie of perfectionism says &#8220;You&#8217;re not ready. It&#8217;s not ready. It&#8217;s not good enough.&#8221; And because of that, really we&#8217;re not getting that contribution and we&#8217;re not getting that beautiful expression that could totally bust the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It&#8217;s funny that you should say that\nbecause we all go to these continuing education where we learn about business\nstrategies and things you could implement in your practice and even new\nclinical things. So, you buy all the equipment or you&#8217;re all set up and you put\na new system in and your team decides they don&#8217;t really want to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And you think, so it&#8217;s bumpy. This isn&#8217;t going well. We can&#8217;t seem to set up our equipment right. Or the first time we talked to a patient about this, they turned us down, or whatever, something didn&#8217;t feel comfortable and you retreat. And suddenly you&#8217;re not doing whatever it is that you really wanted to implement because, and it is, it&#8217;s about perfectionism, because you couldn&#8217;t just walk in and do it perfectly. It&#8217;s, I think, a struggle in everyone&#8217;s life. It&#8217;s not just business. It&#8217;s not just dentistry. I think that everyone deals with that. You and I were dealing with that with this podcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Yeah, totally. We&#8217;re not doing this\nbecause we can do it perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We agreed that we would just jump\nin because how will you learn what works, unless you do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So Shawn, do you have any ideas of how somebody could implement something new in their practice with it going smoothly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It sounds like what you&#8217;re saying\nis dentists often come from the conferences, like you&#8217;re saying. Is it\nsomething that they struggle with from time to time, getting adoption or\ngetting implementation of a new idea?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Oh yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, so one of the things I&#8217;ve\nlearned over the last 10 years is this concept of failing fast but failing\nforward. And the reason why it&#8217;s that term &#8216;fail&#8217; is because we often think of\nit as a failure of you try something and it doesn&#8217;t work out the way you think\nit should work out. But in reality, in that process of trying to implement\nsomething, you can either learn or you really do fail. The real failure is if\nyou don&#8217;t learn anything. So, I would say let that expectation on your own\nleadership style be, it&#8217;s okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The greatest businesses, they fail and they fail as fast as they can because then they can learn as much as they need to learn, and they fail forward. So they fail in the direction of where they&#8217;re wanting to head. And that might even sound like, I don&#8217;t know. How does that sound as a dentist, when I even mention the word, fail fast, or should I say fail often?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Oh, my stomach is burning. That\nsounds awful because you see, when you&#8217;re talking about a failure, you&#8217;re\ntalking about somebody&#8217;s tooth. We&#8217;re talking about a person. I can&#8217;t fail. I\ncan&#8217;t fail fast because I&#8217;m hurting somebody. And yet the reality is everything\nis new, you have to try it. It doesn&#8217;t mean you shouldn&#8217;t be completely\neducated when you walk in and do your very best, but you do not want to be the\nguy that&#8217;s still placing silver points and root canals. You just cannot be that\nguy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And the thing is, you were trained\nto be great at clinical dentistry, so it is fine for you to not want to even\nkind of have certain expectations of failing often. But you weren&#8217;t trained in\nleadership. You weren&#8217;t trained in team development, you weren&#8217;t trained in\neven change management within an organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; No. There&#8217;s no time for that in\ndental school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So if that greatness that you have\nin a different area of your life doesn&#8217;t allow you to try and get in the game\nand learn in these other areas of your practice where you need to, maybe that\nparadigm of failing fast and failing forward, don&#8217;t put that over your clinical\ndentistry because you already are great at that. And give yourself grace to be\nhuman. But when it comes to leading your team, when it comes to leading a new\ninitiative, something moving forward or your practice, you want to try a new\nstyle of marketing, there&#8217;s a new office loyalty program that you&#8217;re wanting to\nget adoption, for that side of your leadership, that side of that expression of\nagain, leading a team, give yourself permission to fail fast and forward. You\ndon&#8217;t have to do it right the first time, but by not willing to try, you&#8217;ll\nnever learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, I think I&#8217;ve taken this to a\nfixed mindset versus a growth mindset. So I&#8217;m not going to change everything at\nonce. If you change everything in your practice at once, it&#8217;s chaos. It makes\nyou crazy. So you pick one area where you&#8217;re going to grow and then you\nimplement something and then you pick another area so you&#8217;re not changing\neverything at once. And I think that allows you to really try something, fail\nfast, and try something else. But you can&#8217;t, you can&#8217;t keep your office in the\nsame way it was 20 years ago. Dentistry&#8217;s moving fast. I don&#8217;t practice\nanything like I did 20 years ago and I suspect in 20 years it will be even more\ndifferent. Even more different is that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But it will be, it will be very\ndifferent in 20 years and you can&#8217;t fall behind. You still got to move forward.\nAnd that means that there will be some failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And it&#8217;s how we&#8217;re viewing those\nfailures. Failure is, I think it was Henry Ford or Thomas Edison, both of them\nare notoriously famous for failing often and failing fast. And they viewed it\nas it&#8217;s just an opportunity to begin again more intelligently. But, you can&#8217;t\ngrow and begin with new intelligence if you aren&#8217;t actually trying. And we\nreally care about dentists growing. We care about dentists moving forward on\nthis journey of being more authentic and practicing the dentistry of their\ndreams, practicing the dentistry that&#8217;s really true to their passion, what they\ncare about. And part of that is they&#8217;re going to need to learn to deal with\nthis tension of perfection. Because let&#8217;s face it, they are very, like you\nsaid, detailed and meticulous, and excellence is something that they&#8217;ve been\naccustomed to and it&#8217;s a good thing that they can be very consistent with\nexcellence, that is unbelievable, but we don&#8217;t want them to get derailed by a\nwrong mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that&#8217;s why it was so valuable what you shared Alison. Again about, wow, these experts on this panel were saying, wait a second, she thinks we&#8217;re going to help her not&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Fail, ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Right. And that&#8217;s not what they\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; That&#8217;s not what they said at all.\nAnd you know what, looking back I can see that I was very vulnerable to do\nthat. At the time it didn&#8217;t feel that way. It felt embarrassing I guess, but it\ndidn&#8217;t feel as vulnerable. But I think vulnerability is the only place where\nyou can grow, where you can ask for help. You can admit something&#8217;s wrong\nbecause if you just stuff it, that&#8217;s when I think we run into all this\ndepression and anxiety, where we just are not enjoying our practice. So that\nvulnerability of, &#8220;Hey, this didn&#8217;t go well. Can somebody help me?&#8221;\nAnd I think that&#8217;s part of why I&#8217;m in the Dental Association, that that&#8217;s why\nyou join groups, why you&#8217;re not practicing all on your own, so you can talk\nabout it and realize you&#8217;re not alone. All of us have bad outcomes. All of us\nhave failures. We don&#8217;t like the word failure by the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Right. Trigger word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We have bad outcomes. Yeah, we all\ndo. And it&#8217;s just part of being human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And this is what makes podcasting\nwith you great because we&#8217;re not wanting to mislead people by just sharing again,\nthis fake, &#8220;Hey, this is who we are and everything&#8217;s perfect.&#8221; You\nhave the courage to be transparent and you have the courage to be vulnerable.\nAnd I believe that&#8217;s why your team respects you the way you do and so many.\nThat&#8217;s why you&#8217;ve been able to hold such leadership positions because you lead\nauthentically. So just to honor you and validate you, you&#8217;re the perfect\npartner even to do a podcast with. And like you mentioned before, this is us in\naction showing that we&#8217;re not going to let perfectionism stop us from\nexpressing what we care about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So to wrap this up, what would you want to leave people with, whether it&#8217;d be a challenge or an encouragement to someone that right now, what can they do, what are some next steps that they could do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, I have to acknowledge you.\nYou&#8217;ve taught me a lot of things here. And I think one of the big things is\nthat culture of excellence. That you allow yourself to be vulnerable. You allow\nyourself to be vulnerable in front of your team, and then you create systems\nwithin your team where you can do your very best work, but you&#8217;re not mean to\nother dentists. If you see something that somebody did that wasn&#8217;t a beautiful\noutcome, you don&#8217;t put the other dentists down in front of the patient or in\nfront of your team. You accept, you give them some grace, and you give yourself\nsome grace, and then you do the very best you can next time. And I think that\ngives respect from your team, from your patients and it makes you sleep better\nat night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Absolutely. To the listeners, we&#8217;re\njust say take some time this week and just reflect on areas that you have\ngrown. Reflect on the things that are doing great in dentistry. And if you&#8217;re\ntempted at all to think about ways that you could improve by looking at something\nyour not doing well. Don&#8217;t do that. Maybe that&#8217;s what&#8217;s natural for you or\nwhat&#8217;s comfortable, but we want to challenge you actually integrate the\nsuccesses that you&#8217;ve had. Integrate the ways that you&#8217;ve grown over the last\n12 months. Give yourself a pat on the back, take a deep breath and go,\n&#8220;Wow, I&#8217;m doing it. I&#8217;m in process and being in process is okay.&#8221; So\nwe just want to encourage you, keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Somebody told me a long time ago\nthat when you become perfect and you never have a bad outcome, you should\nretire because you&#8217;re scary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; That&#8217;s awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, thank you, Shawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Thank you, Allison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Thank you. Shawn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever felt the tension between desiring excellence in your clinical dentistry but often feeling bound by perfectionism instead? There&#8217;s a fine line between having a standard of excellence and being stuck with the counterfeit of perfection. Explore the below conversation as Allison and Shawn dive deeper into this very issue. Our mission here &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[55,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry - The Authentic Dentist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry - The Authentic Dentist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever felt the tension between desiring excellence in your clinical dentistry but often feeling bound by perfectionism instead? There&#8217;s a fine line between having a standard of excellence and being stuck with the counterfeit of perfection. Explore the below conversation as Allison and Shawn dive deeper into this very issue. Our mission here &hellip; Continue reading &quot;The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Authentic Dentist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-22T23:55:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-23T00:08:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/TAD-Blog-post_222-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shawn Zajas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"31 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Authentic Dentist\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/TAD-Blog-post_222-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/TAD-Blog-post_222-1.png\",\"width\":720,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"The Authentic Dentist \u203a Episode 2 \u203a The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/\",\"name\":\"The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry - The Authentic Dentist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-22T23:55:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-23T00:08:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7131d56d7275516c2f045ef6c760156e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7131d56d7275516c2f045ef6c760156e\",\"name\":\"Shawn Zajas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7ef24a252f724ab1dd83e93ac70b1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7ef24a252f724ab1dd83e93ac70b1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Shawn Zajas\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/author\/shawnzajas\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry - The Authentic Dentist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/theauthenticdentist.com\/the-dangers-of-perfectionism-in-dentistry\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Dangers of Perfectionism in Dentistry - The Authentic Dentist","og_description":"Have you ever felt the tension between desiring excellence in your clinical dentistry but often feeling bound by perfectionism instead? 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