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Identity
28 Plays7 months ago
About the Hosts:
In this episode, we have the dynamic duo Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor, both fresh from their journeys of dental education and now navigating the early years of their dental practices. Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor are dedicated professionals with a passion for dentistry and a commitment to patient care. With real-life experiences fresh out of dental school, they are adept at understanding the challenges and triumphs of stepping into the medical field as new practitioners. Their insights aim to help young doctors acclimate to their newfound responsibilities while embracing their unique identities.
Episode Summary:
Diving into the world of post-graduate challenges, this episode of "Beyond Graduation" with Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor unpacks the complex process of establishing one's identity as a doctor. Starting with an inviting introduction, Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor provoke thought on what it means to carry the title of 'Doctor' and how it impacts their professional interactions and self-perceptions.
They delve into the nuances of imposter syndrome and the evolution of their professional self-awareness from graduation to the realities of clinical practice. The discussion spans the intricacies of patient relationships, gender dynamics within the field, as well as the personal ramifications of professional titles and societal expectations.
Key Takeaways:
- Imposter syndrome is a common experience among new dentists which evolves as they gain experience and confidence in their roles.
- Young female dentists may face unique challenges related to their identity and how they are perceived by patients and colleagues.
- Presenting oneself professionally and authentically can alleviate some concerns about patients' initial perceptions.
- Embracing unique aspects of one's identity can be advantageous and contribute positively to patient care.
- Building confidence and establishing professional respect is a key part of the transition from dental school to practice.
Resources:
- Savannah Craig, DDS: @savanahcraigdds
- Ronnetta Sartor, DMD: @dr_sartor
Dive into the full episode to join Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor as they delve into the real discussions of life beyond graduation, exploring how to forge personalized paths in the realm of dentistry. Stay tuned for more engaging content that brings light to the practical facets of embarking on a medical career.
Recommended
Transcript
Navigating Identity Post-Dental School
00:00:00
Speaker
Join Dr. Savannah Craig and Renetta Sartor as we navigate life beyond graduation. Real conversations about forging our own paths in our early years in our careers. There's a reason it's called practicing dentistry.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Beyond Graduation with Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor. This week we are talking about identity and by identity, we mean identity as a doctor, coming out of school, going into residency, going into your first job outside of residency, or if you come straight out of school, what's your identity and do you know who you are?
00:00:46
Speaker
Or are we all just pretending until we figure it out? What is your take, Savannah?
Imposter Syndrome as a New Doctor
00:00:55
Speaker
I think it's really ironic because, you know, in dental school, you're like, I just want those letters after my name. I just want to be Dr. Craig. And then still to this day, there are times where like,
00:01:14
Speaker
I don't know, my mom will do it ironically. And there's still a moment of like, oh, that is me, like I didn't earn this. And I think there's some like imposter syndrome to that. So I have mixed feelings about it the longer it goes on. And I think another piece of it that's been very funny to me is like,
00:01:43
Speaker
I don't know, I got an, an email from like my new boss and wanting to call him, you know, doctor, whatever in every email, but not wanting him to call me doctor. You know what I mean? Like I signed my mail Savannah, but then referred to him as that. And it's realizing now that like we're sort of on the same level and there's like a respect thing to it, but I don't know why it makes me uncomfortable, but it does sometimes.
00:02:16
Speaker
That's understood. I mean, it is a very awkward transition because in school most of the time they didn't really call you doctor. As you got closer to graduation, they may just to kind of start testing the waters. But it's a very, very good point.
Perceptions of Professionalism and Youth
00:02:37
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And I think for me, as it pertain to identity, one of the things that I struggle with the most coming out
00:02:45
Speaker
is patients always coming in and saying, are you even old enough to be the doctor? And I kind of made light of it. And we'll just say things like, yeah, I am. And then you read the room and you know if they're serious or they're just joking. So some of them who are serious, I'll let them know.
00:03:15
Speaker
Yeah, I just have a baby face, but I assure you I went to school and went to residency and did all of these things and had these experiences and, you know, pretty much give them a rundown of the, the, the education that I've had and assured them that even though I may be a younger doctor, I'm here to serve in their best interests.
00:03:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think I definitely have that experience with a patient and I knew they wouldn't like, yeah, I've been doing this 11 months. I was like, oh, I've been doing this for three years. I like counted clinic in dental school because it just seemed better.
00:04:05
Speaker
Dentistry is one of the fields that is a little bit different, especially when you look at our MD friends, because when we're in dental school, we actually get a lot of clinical experience of having our own patients and treating our own patients. And I think a lot of patients don't know or realize that until sometimes you have that.
00:04:32
Speaker
conversation with them and that's not saying go and tell your patients oh yeah I saw all of these patients in school um but I think it does bring up a really good point yeah I think the I mean residency and I don't know if you had this experience but we see a lot of patients who work in the hospital um and so physicians and nurses and PAs can
00:05:03
Speaker
have an idea in their mind of what a resident is or could be.
Owning the Title of 'Doctor'
00:05:08
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And so some of them had a problem with us being residents and just reminding them, hey, I'm choosing to be here. I could be out opening a practice. And you would have no idea that I just graduated a year ago. But my attendings made it a really good point to, from day one, address you as
00:05:32
Speaker
doctor and hey doc, did you eat anything and sort of beat that into you in a way that I really did? Or there are times where I'll be like, hey, what do you think about this? And they're like, I don't know, doctor, what do you think? And I don't know, I think going into practice now, I really have to own that, like,
00:05:59
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Not that there's not people I can ask questions to, but nobody's coming to save you. These are your decisions and you're at the end of the line now. So I think that's nerve wracking. Those are very, very, very good points. Very good points.
Gender Dynamics in Dentistry
00:06:27
Speaker
I think too, um, in both of our cases, it's that we have the experience of being young doctors, but also young female doctors in a profession that had traditionally been predominantly a male dominated field. So I remember
00:06:50
Speaker
in dental school and in residency, I would have some patients that would say, you know, I've never had a lady dentist before. And, you know, I would have some patients that would try to call me by my first name or call me Mrs. Instead of doctor. Um, you know, with, um,
00:07:15
Speaker
With humor, I dress at those situations as best as I could. I don't know what your experience been. Yeah, I think it's been less so than I expected in residency that I've had that issue. And I think it's, I mean, one, we wear different colored scrubs. The assistants and the hygienists make a really good point to introduce you as such.
00:07:45
Speaker
But in dental school or like out and about telling people, yeah, I'm a dentist. People are like, oh, so you're a hygienist. Not that there is anything wrong with being a hygienist. It's very funny because my mom is a hygienist and she's the first one to be like, no. Like, she will address her as talk. They're so funny. So shout out to my mom. But yeah, I mean,
00:08:14
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There's no stuff for people to go and getting used to females in the profession and stuff like that. It's crazy when it happens. Yes.
00:08:28
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It's two-sided too, because in residency we would have, I thought it was the funniest thing at the time, but we would have some patients call and request a female dentist, but for different reasons. Like one patient said, I have a very tiny mouth, female dentists tend to have smaller hands and are more gentle.
00:08:52
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there are some patients that feel like female dentists are more patient and gentle with children. And so they seek out female dentists for that. So it's, I see it both ways. And I do think like you said, um, over time, especially because more and more
00:09:16
Speaker
Um, females are entering a profession and at some point we might be at a point where it's just as many females, um, who are practicing dentists, then they are males. It'll become less of a whole thing, but I think it brings up a point that patients have preferences and that's okay. Yeah. One thing, how do you,
00:09:41
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Maybe it's different now because you own the practice, but I've noticed, so there's three, there were three of us that were female residents and then three male residents. And those of us, we would introduce ourselves walking there and saying, hey, I'm Dr. Craig. But a lot of the guys would go in and introduce themselves first and last name. And there was never like a question that they were the doctor.
00:10:12
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Have you had that experience or do you, how do you introduce yourself to new patients, I guess? Um, I almost never say my first name. Um, I just go in and say, hello, I'm Dr. Sartor and my last name is weird. So we make jokes about my last name. So I say, well, if you can't pronounce it, um, I go by Dr S or just call me dog. I'll answer. And, um, that tends to be enough for them. Yeah.
Balancing Appearance and Professional Identity
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:41
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That tends to be enough. But you do make a very good point that I do think, and it might be because females have a history of having that type of identity crisis from the beginning. We just say, Hey, I'm doctor so and so and then going from there. Yeah. Some of my co-residents who are going into practices that have been only men are really concerned about
00:11:12
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Should I wear a white coat? How should my name be on my scrubs to avoid confusion? Make sure I don't wear the same color scrubs as the assistants.
00:11:25
Speaker
Now I did put my name on my scrubs, but it was more so because my last name is not a common name. And I would frequently be asked by patients, how do you spell it? Yeah. So that they can pronounce it. So it was just very easy for me to point and for them to look. And you know, so that's why I put my name on my scrubs.
00:11:49
Speaker
I didn't wear a white coat at all. And it's you probably will be similar to that in that I did a lot of surgery. Yeah. And so a white coat and what might become of a surgery are not a good mix. So for that reason, that reason only I didn't wear a white coat too much. I would wear my hair down a lot.
00:12:18
Speaker
Because when my hair was down, even if I had a headband on and it back, in my mind, I felt that I looked a little bit older. I think it's the equivalent of our male counterparts growing beards and facial hair because they look a little bit older.
00:12:39
Speaker
over time as I became more confident in myself, I stopped doing it. Yeah, because my hair just getting away. So I pull it back in a ponytail holder and this is the young face that you get and I go into it with confidence and we make some jokes about it and we get the show on the road.
Growth Beyond Imposter Syndrome
00:13:00
Speaker
Yeah, you get what you get and you know, this is my skill set. I think
00:13:10
Speaker
that comes with time to hopefully the imposter syndrome gets better. I feel like it does. I remember in dental school, it probably was a terrible way to think of it, but
00:13:31
Speaker
it, my classmates and I think it made us feel better as we transitioned from like, being strictly didactic into the more clinical standpoint, I just remember us telling each other to encourage ourselves, you know, just kind of, you know, do as much studying and
00:13:52
Speaker
practicing on the typodon as you can but if you have to go in and fake it till you make it like do so um but you know with confidence and the more you do things the more that you don't have to fake it anymore it is what is is what you become is who you are and it all works out in the end
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I don't know, it's a lot to get used to, but I don't know. There are times in my own head of just like, okay, you are the doctor, you earned this, it's okay, like, keep going. Yeah, it's funny.
00:14:43
Speaker
in residency, because if you know South Carolina, you know that the low country, we kind of have different accents from different places in South Carolina. So one of the things that I worked on a whole bunch
00:15:01
Speaker
is my accent and how I said things so I would sound professional um and then over time I stopped I think it improved but I also stopped thinking about it as much because I found
00:15:19
Speaker
that I ended up in places in treating patient populations that understood it and even embraced it. And so it kind of taught me to not be so critical of myself.
00:15:39
Speaker
Yeah, because it is something about me that makes me unique. And it doesn't take away from who I am as a professional, if anything, it just kind of makes me a special little snowflake, I guess added flavor. Yeah. I think that sort of comes down to the whole, you know, you'll find the patients who embrace you and who you are and
00:16:09
Speaker
the way you deliver treatment and the way you interact with them. And I think that, yeah, I'm starting to get that. In dental school, I needed those patients more than they needed me sometimes. Please, I need to graduate. And so I think now just having the confidence to be like, this is how I am and this is who I am. And if you don't like that,
00:16:38
Speaker
you are welcome to find a dentist who meshes more with what you're looking for. But I think it's frustrating sometimes, especially when they don't even give you a shot because you're young or you're female or talking about accents. I'm a Northerner in South Carolina. I've had some patients who didn't like that, which was
00:17:08
Speaker
Of all the things I expected to have to overcome, that was not one of them. But the patients, two of the patients who jokingly or for serious were apprehensive about being young, being female, ended up being some of my favorite patients who, you know, we got over that and they trusted me and
00:17:38
Speaker
I don't know. Like, let me show you what I can do before you make that judgment, I guess.
Embracing Individuality in Practice
00:17:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think overall, it seems like when we get down to the bottom of it, it just seems that both of us are saying to embrace who you are. If you're young, if you're female, if you have an accent or you're from up north,
00:18:05
Speaker
or you have anything else that makes you super unique it's just gonna make you an even better provider and the sooner you embrace it the sooner you'll be able to embrace who you are and be the best you know dentist that you can be for your patients. What are your final thoughts Savannah? I think that's really well said of
00:18:34
Speaker
You know, your uniqueness is bringing something special to your community and your practice. And don't think you need to change that for anybody.
00:18:49
Speaker
Let us know what your thoughts are on your identity and how you feel about being called doctor or not. Message us on social media and let us know what you think. Thanks for tuning in.
00:19:05
Speaker
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Beyond Graduation. If you enjoyed this week's episode, be sure to share it with a friend. Connect with us on social media at Savannah Craig DDS and at Dr. Underscore Sartor. And remember, you are not alone on this journey.