Leadership Under Pressure in Your Dental Practice

By Sarah Beth Herman, CEO of Dentistry Support®

Monday, a new episode of No Silver Spoons® drops — an episode about carrying success, managing the weight of leadership, and staying grounded when no one’s cheering. But before then, let’s talk about something many dental practices don’t talk about enough: pressure. Because in a dental office, pressure doesn’t ask for permission. It doesn’t wait for perfect timing. It just shows up.

If you’ve built anything — a practice, a team, a dream for your dental business — this applies to you. Pressure is the quiet companion to progress. It’s that whisper in your head when the schedule is full, the claims are piling up, and you still feel under‐resourced. It’s showing up when your heart is already heavy and your team is already tired. And if you’re leading a dental office or practice, you know this firsthand.

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The Hidden Pressure Points in Dental Practices

Running a dental practice means juggling clinical excellence, patient care, operational workflows, team morale, and financial metrics — all under a roof where someone’s smile matters. The challenge is real: nearly one in seven dentists reported signs of burnout even before the pandemic. CareQuest+2ADA News+2 After the pandemic, these numbers climbed. Burnout isn’t just about working too many hours — it’s about pressure that isn’t managed, systems that aren’t built, and leadership that thinks “I’ll just keep going” is enough.

In your office, the pressure may manifest as:

• Full appointment lights but rising claims denials and missed eligibility verifications.

• A team working hard but morale slipping because roles aren’t clear and systems aren’t stable.

• You as the leader carrying the weight of every upset patient, every frustrated caller, every back‐office mess.

• Late nights that feel unproductive because you’re firefighting instead of building for tomorrow.

The cost is visible: lower team retention, dropped production, patient experience slipping and a leader who feels unseen. According to Dental Economics, stress and burnout in dental teams are factors like patient complaints, poor support, and high administrative burdens. Dental Economics And leadership and team dynamics in dental practice management are pivotal in turning that pressure into productive energy, not destruction. Curve Dental+1

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Why Leadership Must Shift When the Pressure Mounts

When the pressure gets loud, leadership needs to evolve — not just in the tools you use, but in how you show up. Effective dental leadership isn’t about being bossy or always having the answers. It’s about creating a culture where the team knows: they’re aligned, they’re empowered, and they’re supported. Burkhart Dental Supply

Here’s what that looks like:

• You have a clear vision and mission that the team sees regularly. When your team asks “why are we doing this?” you already have the answer.

• You provide consistent expectations and measurable standards so the team knows what success looks like — not vague hope but tangible outcomes.

• You communicate — morning huddles, weekly check‐ins, open door policy — so that pressure doesn’t build in silence.

• You build systems, not shortcuts. Because when pressure strikes, a team with systems stands firm; a team without them cracks.

Consider this: if the team doesn’t understand the underlying purpose of the workflows, they’ll just “do tasks” and feel burdened. But when they understand the why — they’re less likely to feel pressure as distraction and more likely to view it as purpose. Leadership under pressure means seeing strain as a signal to lead differently, not as a reason to hide.

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Three Practical Strategies to Build Resilience in Your Dental Practice

Let’s turn this into action. If you’re feeling pressure in your dental office, here are three drills you can drop into your practice this week:

1. Weekly “Pressure Check” Conversation

Before your Monday huddle, have a 5-minute checkpoint: What’s feeling heavy this week? Give each team member 30 seconds to voice the thing they’re carrying. This gives voice to pressure—and voice is the first step to relief. When pressure is named early, it can be managed before it becomes burnout.

2. Clarify Who Does What — The Role & Responsibility Board

Get a white‐board or digital board where roles, tasks, and owners are clearly defined. For example: “Verify insurance eligibility – Sarah” / “Handle missed calls – Mike” / “Monitor claims denials – Rachel”. When pressure builds, people don’t panic—they look at the board and know their lane. This clarity is leadership’s best friend in a high‐volume environment.

3. Celebrate the Micro‐Wins

Pressure creates tunnel vision: you look at what’s wrong instead of what’s working. Create a recognition ritual: “One thing I noticed someone did this week that made a difference…” Say it aloud, write it, tape it up. According to The Journal of Positive Psychology (2024), regular gratitude practices within workplaces reduce burnout by 45% and improve resilience 32%. (Yes, I’m pulling research into this sun-bleached chewing gum of dental leadership.) Dentistry Support ®+1

When you show appreciation for the small successes, you balance the weight of what’s heavy.

Changing the Narrative: Pressure as Privilege

Leadership expert John C. Maxwell says, “Pressure is a privilege — it means you’re trusted with something that matters.” And in dentistry, the trust is obvious: your patients trust you with their health, your team trusts you to lead, and you trust yourself to keep the vision alive. If it feels heavy, that’s a sign your capacity has grown. You’re not broken — you’re being built.

When you view pressure as a pathway instead of punishment, your posture shifts. When things feel messy, you don’t shrink — you steward. You build better systems, speak more clarity, and breathe more often. Because stress isn’t just an isolation—it’s an invitation to evolve your leadership.

Why You Should Listen to Monday’s Episode

On Monday, the new episode of No Silver Spoons® drops — and you’ll hear me unpack my personal story of leadership under pressure: scaling a business, facing relational strain, battling self‐doubt, and learning to lead when the applause died down. After you read this training, you’ll have the context to understand:

• What happens when success lands but the weight doesn’t lighten.

• How leadership must adapt when everyone expects the show to keep going without a break.

• How to support your team when you feel your own foundation shaking.

• And how to keep moving based on purpose, not pressures.

If you want more than tips — if you want a deeper shift, a mindset change, a leadership posture that lasts past the high volume and into the sustainable future — you’ll want to tune in.

Free Training Resource: Your Pressure Plan

As part of this week’s focus, we’re providing a free training download: The Pressure Plan. It’s designed for dental practice leaders who feel the strain but want to build clarity, calm, and consistency. Inside it includes:

• A “Pressure Audit” worksheet to capture the loud vs the true in your week.

• A 90-second grounding practice you can use before a huddle or difficult conversation.

• Faith‐rooted, neuroscience‐backed affirmations to train your brain for stability.

• A 3-line daily reset to tune your mindset for purpose rather than panic.

Access the download via DentistrySupport.com/FreeTraining and keep it handy in your notes app or print it for your clinic. Because leadership isn’t just done in the good days—it’s refined in the heavy ones.

Before You Go: One Final Thought

Every late night, every claim rerun, every staffing glitch, every patient who walked out early — it’s not proof you’re failing. It may be proof you’re preparing. If you feel the weight of leadership, rejoice: someone trusted you when no one else could. So breathe. Pause. And say aloud: Keep going. See you Monday.

References

American Dental Association. (2022). The burden of burnout. ADA News. Retrieved from https://adanews.ada.org/new-dentist/2022/may/the-burden-of-burnout/Burkhart Dental Supply. (n.d.). Practice leadership strategies. Retrieved from https://www.burkhartdental.com/practice-guide/developing-leadership-skills/practice-leadership-stra…CureDental. (2025, May 2). Leadership and team dynamics in dental practice management. Curve Dental Blog. Retrieved from https://www.curvedental.com/dental-blog/leadership-and-team-dynamicsNegucioiu, M., Buduru, S., Ghiz, S., Kui, A., Șoicu, S., & Sava, R. (2024). Prevalence and management of burnout among dental professionals before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review. Healthcare, 12(23), 2366. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12232366Prodent Search. (2023). 10 dental leadership principles to elevate your team’s success.

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Disclaimer:

To learn more about Sarah Beth Herman, the author of all free training content you can read her bio here. These materials are intended to provide helpful information to dentists and dental team members. They are in no way a substitute for actual professional advice based on your unique facts and circumstances. This content is not intended or offered, nor should it be taken, as legal or other professional advice. You should always consult with your own professional advisors (e.g. attorney, accountant, or insurance carrier). To the extent, Dentistry Support ®has included links to any third-party website (s), Dentistry Support ® intends no endorsement of their content and implies no affiliation with the organizations that provide their content. Further, Dentistry Support ® makes no representations or warranties about the information provided on those sites. You can view our privacy policy and terms and conditions by clicking those pages in the footer of our website