Episode #518: Dr. Josh Austin at ADA SmileCon

Today, from the floor of ADA SmileCon, Kirk Behrendt brings back one of ACT’s favorite dental comedians, Dr. Joshua Austin, who uses humor to talk about some of the serious issues that many dentists face. He shares his insights on mental health, emotional well-being, and the role of therapy as he reflects on some of the key victories in his life that he has learned to celebrate. To be inspired by his story and to start celebrating the achievements in your life, listen to Episode 518 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

• Dr. Austin’s email: [email protected] 
• Dr. Austin’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoshuaAustinDDS/
• Dr. Austin’s social media: @joshuaaustindds
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Links Mentioned in This Episode:

American Academy of Clear Aligners: https://www.aacaligners.com

Reingage: https://www.reingage.com

Voices of Dentistry: https://www.voicesofdentistry.com

Main Takeaways:

Always be kind to yourself.

Appreciate the things you're able to do.

Learn how to celebrate victories — even small ones.

Talk to yourself the way you talk to people you love and respect.

Friends, coaches, and consultants are great — but you need a therapist.

Quotes:

“I remember being 11 years old and getting Comedy Central added to our cable package and experiencing that for the first time. I think it’s when it launched. And I remember early on, being 11 years old, and seeing a Howie Mandel standup special and thinking, ‘God, I would love to do that one day. But there's no way I have the talent or skill to do that.’” (16:00—16:18)

“Remember the movie, Field of Dreams? It’s one of my favorite movies. There’s a character named Moonlight Graham. And Moonlight Graham comes up because he got one at-bat in the Major Leagues, and then he never got to play again. And I remember somebody in the movie saying something like, ‘Aren't you angry? Don't you wish you had more chance?’ And he’s like, ‘No. I got to live my dream, even if it was one at-bat.’ And so, [opening for Jim Gaffigan] was my one at-bat. It'll probably never happen again, and it’s fine. And not a ton of dental meetings have standup comics, surprisingly, so it'll probably never come up. I'll probably never get another chance to do it, and that's totally fine. I'm totally happy with it. The fact that I got to do it once was amazing.” (17:03—17:47)

“I'm bad about celebrating . . . I don't celebrate things if something happens. Like, we had a great CE course yesterday. It’s a packed room, sold-out room, and it was like, ‘Oh, great course!’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, I don't know . . . Whatever. It was easy,’ trying to find some way to diminish it because I don't like to take the compliment.” (17:48—18:10)

“Andrea, my wife, had basically told me, ‘We’re celebrating this. We’re going to get a champagne or cocktail when this is done.’ So, I stopped at the hotel bar. It’s the closest to the bank of elevators that we were staying in. No rhyme or reason to it, it’s just where we stopped, and ordered a glass of champagne or cocktail, whatever it was. We’re standing there, and the bartender brought it over, and he was like, ‘These are paid for.’ Someone down at the bar had seen the set and paid for our drinks. He came over, and he was like, ‘Hey, I just want to let you know it was awesome. You're so courageous to have gotten up there. I would’ve never had the courage to do that.’ So, it was great. We enjoyed our nice drink. And I remember Andrea went to bed. I was still, adrenaline going, so I couldn't sleep. And at some point, I went in the bathroom of the hotel room, and I closed the door, and I sat on the floor and cried for 45 minutes. Which, it was weird. It wasn't a sad cry. It was this moment of intense appreciation for the fact that I got to do this thing that I'd always wanted to do.” (18:12—19:20)

“[Voices of Dentistry] was the first place that I ever shared my mental health journey. And that was in February of 2020. And it was literally — like, I had an hour. I did 40 minutes about other stuff, and then the last 20 minutes was this mental health thing. And I'd never gotten feedback about anything like I got about those 20 minutes.” (25:58—26:19)

“My wife makes fun of me because — I can't believe we’re talking about this — I don't like to be naked, even with her . . . She calls me a never-nude, which is a reference to an old show with Jason Bateman, Arrested Development. There was a guy there who’s called a “Never Nude”, who didn't like to ever take his clothes off. And so, that's me. And she was like, ‘I cannot believe that you will show this video where you strip down to your underwear. You don't take your shirt off for anybody, and yet . . .’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, because I can get a laugh out of it.’” (30:18—31:06)

“You go to a Wendy’s or a Burger King, and it’s a horrible experience, all the way around. Then, you go to Chick-fil-A. So, where does Chick-fil-A find these people that are this amazing? How do they find these amazing people to work for them? And it’s the idea that they hire the same people that Burger King or Wendy’s hires. It’s that their systems are different. And so, the system makes the experience. The system makes the service.” (40:20—40:45)

“This is something I talk about with my therapist often, is that I don't celebrate stuff. And she’s like, ‘You have to celebrate.’ And Brené [Brown] talked about it a little bit yesterday, about internal dialogues with ourselves. Brené talked about your internal dialogue about yourself. Like, you should talk to yourself the way you talk to somebody that you love and respect.” (42:25—42:47)

“When you have these negative dialogues with yourself about yourself, it makes it to where you marginalize successes, and you overinflate the failures. That skews this internal dialogue you have. You're kind of cutting yourself off at the knees. And I'm speaking about this like I'm some expert, and like I've fixed it. And no, it’s still a problem.” (43:27—43:50)

“When I had my first real, big international gig, when I spoke in Europe, [my therapist] was like, ‘You need to celebrate this. This is something you've wanted to do. You did it. You need to take some time to reflect on it, and celebrate it, and not minimalize it, not say like, well, there was probably somebody else that they booked, but they were busy. Oh, it was COVID-19, so they couldn't get somebody from this country to go, so you were the third choice. Stop having that conversation and celebrate the achievement. Celebrate the victory.’ And so, it’s still a huge challenge for me. I think it’s all internal dialogue systems, and it probably stems from family systems that were in my family of like, if you got straight A’s, it was, ‘Cool.’ It’s what you're supposed to do. You don't get a Happy Meal because you got straight A’s on your report card. That's what you're supposed to do. So, those systems come in early. The problem with that is that creates an achievement cycle that can never fulfil what you need.” (44:39—45:45)

“The most valuable therapy sessions I have aren't where I'm just like, ‘And then, this. And then, that. And then, this.’ Whereas [my therapist] stops you and is like, ‘All right, hold on a second. Let's think about that. Why did you react that way? What was this? Where did that come from? Oh, that connects back to this.’ They're trained that way. They're trained to find those connections, and find those patterns, and identify them, and help reshape the way that we think. A consultant or a coach can't do that. A “hairapist” can't do that. And I'm not saying don't have that personal connection with your consultant or your coach, or don't have that connection with your hair stylist. But you still need to have somebody in your life who is professionally trained to handle these things, and to not just listen to you talk for an hour to give information and feedback and systems back to you.” (47:49—48:38)

“Here’s the thing about my therapy journey. It’s not only changed the way I feel about myself — and it’s not perfect. I'm not there — it’s also changed how I communicate with people. That doesn't end when I step foot in my office. That carries into my office. That carries into how I communicate with my staff, how I communicate with my patients, how I communicate with people in my industry. And so, that's the thing about therapy, is it permeates your whole life.” (49:18—49:46)

“In dentistry, we have a treatment plan. You need six restorations and three implants. You work towards a treatment plan. At some point, you're done. But there's always maintenance. Like, when are you done getting your teeth cleaned? When you don't have teeth anymore, I guess. And then, we’ve all failed, somewhere along the way. Like, when are you done with therapy? For some people, if there’s one or two traumatic experiences that you're trying to work through, there may be that. You may be able to work for some time and get to a place where you're good. But, for me, I don't know if I'll ever be done with it. And I think that's okay.” (49:51—50:30)

“My day is a series of answering other people’s problems. Solve this problem, solve this problem, solve this problem. And if I solve enough problems, I get to go home and pet my dog and hug my wife. And that's the goal every day. How many problems do I need to solve to where I'm done? But for that one hour a week [in therapy], I'm someone else’s problem. I don't have to be the answer, and I don't have to answer a problem or find a solution. For one hour a week, someone finds a solution for me. And that solution may just be listening. It may be feedback. We may do EMDR, whatever it is. But for that one hour a week, I'm no longer solving everyone’s problems. And it’s super valuable.” (50:50—51:28)

Snippets:

0:00 Rambling on random subjects.

3:02 About Dr. Austin’s hand-on course at SmileCon.

4:28 Meeting Dr. David Galler, doing standup, and opening for Jim Gaffigan.

24:18 About Voices of Dentistry.

26:20 Reflecting on ACT’s COVID-19 Conference.

29:38 Being a never-nude.

31:45 Dr. Austin’s Trump impersonation.

35:44 Being complimented by Todd Williams.

38:34 Fanboys are weird.

39:52 Core values makes things better.

42:16 Be kind to yourself.

46:19 Why you need a therapist.

51:51 Dr. Austin’s ride home.

Dr. Joshua Austin Bio: 

Dr. Joshua Austin, DDS, MAGD, FACD, is a native San Antonian. After attending San Antonio's Health Careers High School and the University of Texas at San Antonio as an undergrad student, Dr. Austin graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio Dental School.

Dr. Austin is a member of the prestigious Seattle Study Club, which is a network of professional dental study groups dedicated to ideal comprehensive dental care. Dr. Austin's other professional memberships include the Academy of General Dentistry, the Texas Dental Association, American Dental Association, and the Rotary Club of San Antonio.

Dr. Austin is a published author and lectures nationally on restorative dentistry and reputation management. He has a monthly column and weekly e-newsletter in Dental Economics, the most-read dental magazine in the world. 

In the past, Dr. Austin has served as a faculty member in the Department of Restorative Dentistry at UTHSCSA Dental School. Dr. Austin has received several awards during his dental career. In 2009, the Texas Dental Association honored Dr. Austin by naming him Young Dentist of the Year. In 2010, the Texas Academy of General Dentistry named him New Dentist of the Year, the most prestigious award it gives for dentists who have graduated in the previous 7 years. Dr. Austin has earned a Fellowship and Mastership in the Academy of General Dentistry. In 2014, Dr. Austin was awarded with a Fellowship in the American College of Dentists for his outstanding commitment to ethics in patient care.