During the COVID-19 pandemic, dentists had to modify practice. First, they closed practices entirely. Then, complying with guidelines that seemed to change daily, dentists had to prove their resilience and fortitude time and again. As a profession, dentists faced these challenges with the resoluteness that served as a survival technique in dental school, and many made it through the year both compliant and financially intact. Nonetheless, there are lessons to be learned from this shared experience that can help us to mitigate stress related to future unplanned practice disruptions. 

Manage patients’ expectations. When practices were asked to close with no indication of when they would reopen, dentists were not the only ones who were anxious. Patients suffered the uncertainty of not knowing when or how they could be treated. For dentists whose technology was current, it was easy to maintain communication with patients, adding COVID-19 information to practice websites and emailing patients updates about treatment and prevention protocols. While communication could not alleviate an aching tooth, patients who heard regularly from their dentists were able to rest assured that their caregiver was still there to provide care in one form or another. 

Take care of your staff. In much the same way that we are reflecting on lessons learned from the pandemic, staff members who were unfulfilled or otherwise unhappy with their positions before the pandemic were given a chance to reconsider their work-life balance during their work pause, and many decided that they needed a career change. As a practice owner, several people depend on you to put a roof over their heads and food on their tables. We know dentists who asked their staff members to apply for unemployment insurance early in the pandemic, and many of those same dentists are now having trouble staffing their practices. This was a difficult but necessary choice for many practice owners. Some dentists were fortunate to be in a position where they did not have to reduce salaries or benefits during the pandemic and were able to retain the same knowledgeable, dedicated and professional staff members. They have not been forced to endure the stress and costs of finding new personnel. Now that office busyness has returned to pre-pandemic levels, the dentists who were able to maintain staff experienced less disruption. 

Have your affairs in order. It sounds cliché, but if there’s one lesson this pandemic taught us, it’s that anything can happen to anyone at any time. If something were to happen to you, is your family protected financially? Have you updated your wills, trusts and retirement plans to reflect changes in your income and lifestyle? Do you have disability insurance in case you need to stop practicing for an indeterminate period? Is your practice adequately insured for business interruptions? If you’re not sure, it’s time to review and potentially revise your personal and business policies because, unfortunately, they cannot be modified once a claim has occurred. Furthermore, any business should have sufficient fluid emergency funds to cover three to six months of business expenses, and the same is true for your personal finances. 

Stay connected. During the pandemic, we benefited from regular emails from our professional groups. They kept us up-to-date on news affecting the dental profession. As a practitioner, you spend most of your practice time disconnected from your colleagues. Try to ground yourself by regularly engaging in professional activities with your peers and taking advantage of all learning opportunities. 

Make time for yourself. Hopefully, you were able to enjoy some downtime and improved wellness during the period that you were not permitted to practice. You may have improved your diet, incorporated exercise into your daily regimen, read a book or taken up some new hobbies. Dentists often work grueling hours, leaving little time for leisure pursuits. If you were able to reset yourself during the pandemic, perhaps post-pandemic you can continue to restructure your work-life balance by creating calendar entries for activities you enjoy and by being more efficient at work. 

The dental profession has endured the pandemic. It is now time to take the lessons we learned to heart so that, if another catastrophe hits, we can rely on our preparedness, rather than our resilience and fortitude. 

Eric S. Studley, DDS, is the president and CEO of Eric S. Studley & Associates, an insurance brokerage company specializing in the insurance and financial needs of dentists. Ivy D. Peltz, DDS, MSEd, PhD, MAGD, is retired from private practice in New York City. They are both retired from academic positions at the New York University College of Dentistry. They also co-founded Doccupations, the dental career services component of Eric S. Studley & Associates. To comment on this article, email impact@agd.org.