Health and Wellness

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• ADA Well-Being Index
• ADA Resources
• Navigating a Mental Health Crisis
• CDC - Coping with stress
• CDC - Taking care of your emotional health
• Mobile Crisis Intervention Resource
• Mental Health Screening Tool 

Crisis Helplines & Suicide Prevention: 

• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
• United Way Call2Talk
• Massachusetts Behavioral Health - Emergency Services Program/Mobile Crisis Intervention
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 

It is easy for us to feel overwhelmed with what we can’t control. When that happens, we should shift our energy and tap into what we can control. One of our greatest anchors at times of stress exists in all of us, and that anchor is our breath. By slowly breathing in and out, and making our exhales longer than our inhales, we can calm our nervous system and relax the body. 

Benefits:

• Increase strength
• Purify self
• Improve self awareness
• Overcome challenges

Yoga helps you overcome challenges by:

• Acknowledging the challenge
• Accepting the challenge
• Having compassion for the challenge
• Moving through the challenge

Five-Minute Meditation:

Join Dr. Christina DiBona Pastan for a short breathing meditation exercise that can help bring ease and tranquility to your day.

The members of the dental team are among several health care professionals at high risk for developing musculoskeletal disorders. This is due to the unique and, at times, awkward positioning of their bodies during work-related tasks. The key to preventing musculoskeletal disorders is to employ proper ergonomics—the science of tailoring the work environment to the worker.

Common musculoskeletal injuries:

• Mid- and low-back pain
• Premature disc degeneration
• Increased chance of radicular symptoms in the legs
• Chronic neck and upper back musculoskeletal problems
• Carpal tunnel and/or fingers

Decreasing musculoskeletal injuries:

• Use an ergonomically correct stool
• Sit with feet flat on the floor and keep the hips slightly higher than the knees
• Maintain mid-line head/neck posture
• Stretching the hands, fingers and wrists between dental instrument use and between patients
• Learn how to engage and strengthen the transverse abdominal muscles

It's important to take the necessary steps to relieve stress as much as you can through physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral actions.

Top stressors:

• Patients defaulting/no-showing
• Bureaucratic workload
• Time pressures
• Difficult patients

Consequences of accumulation of unhealthy stress:

• Neglect of basic living activities
• Dysfunctional habits
• Quick fixes for self-care habits
• Derive less rewards from pleasures and thus neglect them
• Lack of empathy and interest in others

Four basic steps to reduce stress:

1. Monitor yourself
2. Set a target daily arousal level
3. Plan your interventions wisely
4. Implement and assess the impact

Strategies for offsetting your stress:

 PHYSICAL

• Autonomic relaxation (e.g., diaphragmatic breathing)
• Muscle relaxation (e.g., progressive muscle relaxation)
• Yoga
• Appropriate exercise
• Enough sleep
• Healthy eating
• Reducing substances that tax your nervous system

COGNITIVE

• Meditation (e.g., mindfulness meditation)
• Distraction

EMOTIONAL

• Social comfort
• Experiences of trust (e.g., confiding, prayer)
• Distraction

BEHAVIORAL

• Stress breaks/days off/time-outs
• Fun/pleasurable activities