The cost of perfectionism is prohibitive

Us dentists, as a personality type, tend to be perfectionists. We like everything to be just so. We like all the "i"s dotted and the "t"s crossed and we hate mistakes. That's often a good thing but it can cause serious problems if taken too far.If you want to work with maximum effectiveness you must focus just on the essential things and delegate the rest. Many dentists do a whole lot of tasks that they could easily delegate to members of their team. Things such as ordering, lab work, book work, bills, procedure manuals, referral letters, post-op instructions, notes and patient follow up.Dentists who hold on to all these things run themselves ragged. The reason that they often give is that the staff make mistakes. That is what training is for.You must be prepared to give over tasks to staff after instructing them on how to do it. When they make a mistake you must not immediately take the task back. What you do instead is to revisit the procedure manual and, with consultation, make changes so the mistake doesn't happen again.In the short term it takes effort. In the long term it liberates you.