and cynical. A harsh inner voice fueled self-doubt: “You’re a failure, how can you run a dental clinic but not a relationship?” Only when emotional distress turned physical did she recognize the toll—her ability to work and meet her professional obligations began to suffer. Dentists are already prone to myofascial pain from poor posture, but stress compounds it. Dr. Yont didn’t start practising yoga for serenity—she went to stretch out the pain. But it was there that she also found mindfulness. “I wasn’t searching for mindfulness,” says Dr. Yont. “I went to a yoga class because my body was killing me.” That moment of pain, however, became a turning point. As her body started to heal, she became curious about the deeper mechanisms of stress, eventually leading her to the Mind Body Medicine MD Course offered by Harvard Medical School. There, she trained in the SMART Program: Stress Management and Resiliency Training, and found not only personal healing, but a powerful framework she now shares with other dental professionals. The program is grounded in three pillars: The SMART Approach: A Framework for Stress Management The SMART program was developed by researchers and physicians at the Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. It is one of the few stress management models that blends clinical rigour with day-to-day relevance, especially for health care providers. At its core, SMART is designed to help participants understand how stress works, recognize how it shows up in the body and mind and build skills to regulate and reframe it. Relaxation Response Training This foundational skill helps participants manage their nervous system, switch from chronic stress activation (sympathetic nervous system dominance) into a restorative state of calm (parasympathetic activation). Breathing techniques, body scanning, and guided imagery are used to cue this physiological “brake.” Over time, the nervous system learns to respond, not just react. Stress Awareness Stress manifests uniquely in each of us, physically, emotionally, behaviourally and relationally. One dentist might carry it in clenched jaw muscles, another in irritability or poor sleep. Through journaling, guided inquiry and body-based awareness exercises, SMART participants become fluent in their own stress signatures. Adaptive Strategies for Resilience This final component arms dentists with practical tools to strengthen their stress resilience in the long term. These include cognitive reappraisal (changing how you interpret challenging situations), cultivating optimism and gratitude, fostering supportive relationships, improving sleep and diet, and identifying sources of joy, meaning and purpose. “It’s not about eliminating stress,” says Dr. Yont. “It’s about metabolizing it, using it in a way that strengthens rather than depletes.” It’s not about eliminating stress, it’s about metabolizing it, using it in a way that strengthens rather than depletes. 35 Issue 5 | 2025 | Supporting Your Practice
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