To all my dental friends: it's okay to not be okay it's okay to ask for help

The dental community lost a very respected doctor to suicide. One more time. And I get emotional talking about this because he was incredible. Now, I didn't know him personally. I only saw his comments on social media and his posts and, um, what people shared about being around him. And he was always wanting to encourage people to do better, to do more, to be better. And the reason why I know so much about him was because we were both in Arizona. And I always admired how he ran his practice. I always thought it was fantastic and something that I looked up to and the way that people talked about him made me want to pursue that even more. And then I found out yesterday that he passed away and that he committed suicide. And it's been heavy on my heart as a practice owner because we really do send that message to our friends saying, I'm always here if you need anything. But we don't feel good about reaching out because we always think that other people have more important things to deal with. And we don't wanna be a burden. You don't want to come on social media and cry, because that's not what you do as a leader. But let's be honest, there are so many things, so many things that we handle in private that we don't share. And we are in a career that is designed for us to help take care of others. Yet we don't really take care of ourselves in a way that we should. And I've just been sitting with this this whole weekend. My heart hurts for his family, for his friends, for his coworkers, his team members, his patients. It's really sad. It's really sad and I, I think it's important we talk about these things. I think as young professionals in the field, it's important we talk about this because these are people we look up to. This was a man that was providing really good dental care, who was helping others, who was teaching, who was speaking and sharing his knowledge and still trying to be present for his family. And it's scary. It's scary to think that at one point, that could be any of my close friends. It could be myself. It could be anyone. It could be anyone. So be kind. You really never know what people are going through. And if you are struggling, make sure you reach out. There is one thing that I keep coming back to through all these emotions that I'm feeling is gratitude. Gratitude for my life, gratitude for my family, gratitude for my health. And gratitude for the best friends that I made in dental school. Because that group chat has got me through some of the hardest days in dentistry, and I, I never would have expected that choosing that seat on the first day of dental school would impact my life the way it has now.