When Dentistry Becomes Your Identity: Life & Mental Health with Dr. Erin Sheffield

The pressure of dentistry doesn’t always end when you leave the office. Dr. Erin Sheffield shares why connection, vulnerability, and support matter.

Dentistry can be incredibly rewarding. It can also become difficult to separate what you do from who you are.

Patient complications stay on your mind after hours. Vacations don’t always feel like vacations. Add the pressure of running a practice, leading a team, caring for a family, and continuing to achieve, and dentist burnout and mental health become conversations the profession can’t afford to ignore.

Linda Kane sits down with Dr. Erin Sheffield, a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon, speaker, entrepreneur, and host of the Resting Stitch Face podcast, for a candid conversation about the weight doctors carry—and why they don’t have to carry it alone.

Looking for That Kind of Connection?

Dr. Sheffield created The D.I.ALL In Retreat to give women in oral surgery, dentistry, and medicine a place to step away from the demands of their careers and connect with other doctors who understand the experience.

The next retreat takes place February 26–28, 2027, at Miraval Austin Resort, bringing together community, wellness, continuing education, and conversations about life beyond the title.

Learn more and register at doctorisallin.com.‍

When Dentistry Becomes More Than Your Career

Dr. Sheffield describes dentistry as something that can become deeply connected to a doctor’s identity.

Unlike a job that ends when you clock out, patient care follows you. A complication can happen while you’re away. Someone may need you after hours. Even when another doctor is covering, the responsibility can still feel personal.

“It’s always on your mind and that can be really hard sometimes.”

Caring deeply about patients is part of the profession. But it can also make stepping away, resting, or simply being a person outside of dentistry more difficult.

High Achievement Can Hide What Someone Is Carrying

One of the most personal parts of the conversation comes when Dr. Sheffield discusses losing her father.

From the outside, she appeared to be functioning. She continued working as a surgeon, raising her children, and handling her responsibilities. Internally, she was struggling.

“I’ve never felt so isolated and alone.”

Her experience reinforces something important: functioning isn’t necessarily the same as being okay.

Linda and Dr. Sheffield discuss how easy it is to assume successful, high-achieving people don’t need anyone checking on them. Sometimes, those are exactly the people who need someone to reach out.

Dentists Need Community, Not More Armor

The conversation also explores the professional “armor” doctors can develop through years of education, training, and responsibility.

Dr. Sheffield created the Doctors All In Retreat after finding meaningful connection with other women oral surgeons and realizing how powerful it was to stop feeling like an island.

The retreat brings women oral surgeons, dentists, and physicians together to discuss topics beyond clinical dentistry, including imposter syndrome, physical and mental health, business, and the challenges of being a doctor.

Her larger message applies beyond the retreat: doctors need people who understand the life they are living.

Vulnerability Can Open the Door to Support

When Linda asks Dr. Sheffield for the biggest takeaway from their conversation, her answer is simple: if you feel like you’re doing everything alone, find one person and reach out.

Being vulnerable can feel uncomfortable, especially when you’re accustomed to being the expert, leader, or person everyone else depends on.

“It’s really hard to open up and to say those things that are scary.”

But opening that door can reveal that other doctors may be carrying many of the same feelings.

How This Helps Your Dental Practice

Healthy dental practices need healthy people.

For practice owners and teams, this conversation is a reminder to check on one another, build relationships beyond daily tasks, recognize when someone may be carrying more than they show, and make room for support.

You don’t have to wait until someone is visibly struggling to reach out.

Connect & Learn More

Linda Kane & Dental Office Rescue
Website: dentalofficerescue.com

Dr. Erin Sheffield
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon, Founder, Speaker & Host of Resting Stitch Face
Website: doctorisallin.com

Listen to the full episode of Dental Office Rescue for Linda and Dr. Sheffield’s conversation about dentistry, identity, mental health, grief, professional pressure, and finding people who understand what you’re carrying.