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Welcome to What I Wish I Knew by Dental Head Start. This is a podcast where we learn from people that have been there, made the mistakes, learnt the lessons and have developed into the accomplished dental professionals they are today.
It’s your weekly mentoring session.
Sometimes I Win and Sometimes I Learn
I love this quote from Dr Annalene Weston. Dentistry is hard, and the pressure we often put on ourselves to do, be and fix everything makes things harder.
However at the end of the day nobody is perfect. This episode of the podcast Dentist and Dento-legal Advisor Dr Annalene Weston shares some advice and perspective on managing our expectations of ourselves and our dentistry by embracing a growth mindset.
Annalene is a leading speaker on managing burnout and stress in dentistry and this episode is filled with some advice that will hopefully encourage us to be a bit kinder on ourselves.
Key Tips to Takeaway for Tomorrow:
- 3:30 – Imposter Syndrome
- 5:00 – Strive for excellence, not perfection
- 5:45 – Social Media in Dentistry
- 7:00 – Stop comparing – We are all on our own journey
- 8:10 – Don’t need to be able to do every possible treatment option – just need to know how to diagnose and have good systems of referral
- 9:10 – Tips for Perfectionists (which as dentists – means most of us!)
- 11:00 – Embrace Failure – Sometimes I Win and Sometimes I Learn.
Resources Annalene mentions:
Book – Black Box Thinking – Matthew Syed
For the time poor….the Ted Talk – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmVCYqs3mko

Dr. Annalene Weston
Annalene completed her dental studies and first years of work in the UK before emigrating to Australia. She has worked along the Eastern Seaboard practising in both the public and private sectors, and has added a Masters in Health Law from University of Sydney to her dental qualifications.
Annalene is a dento-legal advisor with Dental Protection, a practicing dentist and a leading speaker on burnout and stress in the dental profession.
We’ve done a feature interview with Annalene which is just excellent! If you haven’t listened yet, please check it out here! She opens the conversation on burnout in the dental profession, an issue that is very real and very important. There are also some amazing links to resources on burnout avaliable in the blog post.
You can get in contact with Annalene through her email below, and as always Dental Protection are always here to help.
Annalene: annalene.weston@dpla.com.au
DPL (membership and dento-legal advice):
phone 1800 444 542
online https://www.dentalprotection.org/australia/contact-us/dento-legal-enquiry
Also, look out for more tips from Annalene coming out on the “What I Wish I Knew” Podcast soon!
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The Dental Head Start Podcast is for students and new graduates. We interview successful dentists and specialists to uncover the tips, tricks and advice to help you transition from dental school to private practice successfully.
If you like this content then I ask just one thing of you; share this with a friend who will benefit from this and help us help more students and new grads!