Are you living your career by design—or just letting it happen to you?



Do you know what your ideal day as a dentist looks like?



What about your ideal week?



In this episode, Jaz is joined by Dr. Andrea Ogden to explore how you can design a career—and a life—in dentistry that feels purposeful and fulfilling.



They dive into why many of us get stuck on autopilot, chasing goals we’ve never truly chosen, and how to break free by aligning work with your values. 



Andrea also shares practical techniques to help you fall back in love with dentistry, so you can build a career that energises you—inside and outside the surgery.




https://youtu.be/XDxlUFeEpbw
Watch IC060 on Youtube



Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below!



Highlights of this episode:




00:00 Teaser



00:21 Introduction



04:49 Guest Introduction – Dr. Andrea Ogden



06:05   Andrea's Journey in Dentistry



08:51 Pivotal Moments in Dentistry



14:51 Trial and Error in Career Development



15:51 Current Role



16:59 Identifying Strengths vs. Enjoyment in Dentistry



18:18 Challenges for Young Dentists



21:51 The Importance of Career Awareness



24:05 Impact of Social Media



26:57 Understanding the Decline in Dentist Morale



31:51 External Factors Contributing to Stress



35:09 Internal Factors and Cognitive Dissonance



41:17 Practical Steps to Reignite Passion for Dentistry



47:32 Resilience Through Adaptation



48:59 Community and Support Networks



51:46 Enjoying the Journey



56:30 Outro




Key Takeaways: 



Dentistry is more than fillings and crown preps—it’s a career you can shape to truly excite you.




Choose Variety & Joy – Build a mix of roles that energise you, not just ones you’re good at.



Ditch the Comparison Game – Your journey is unique; stop measuring it against 15-year veterans on Instagram.



Guard Your Values – Burnout often comes from a mismatch between what you believe in and where you work. Align the two.



Create Space to Reflect – Slow down, think, and use SMART goals to plan your next step.



 Find Your Tribe – Mentors, colleagues, and community will keep you inspired and resilient.



Celebrate the Wins – Small or big, they’re proof you’re moving forward.




Loved this conversation? You’ll also enjoy Passion and Values in Dentistry – PDP014



#CareerDevelopment #InterferenceCast #BreadandButterDentistry



This episode is eligible for 1 CE credit via the quiz on Protrusive Guidance. 



This episode meets GDC Outcomes 



B: Effective management of self and working with others in the dental team.



C: Maintenance and development of knowledge and skills within your field of practice.



D: Maintenance of skills, behaviours and attitudes which maintain patient confidence in you and the dental profession, and put patients’ interests first. 



AGD Subject Code: 770 – Practice Management and Human Relations



Aim: To provide dentists with strategies, insights, and practical steps to rekindle passion for dentistry, align their work with personal values, and develop sustainable career satisfaction.



Dentists will be able to -



1. Identify personal values and career drivers that contribute to long-term job satisfaction.



2. Recognise common stressors affecting dental morale and their underlying causes.



3. Apply structured decision-making frameworks (e.g., SMART goals) to career planning.







Click below for full episode transcript:



Teaser: There's a definite difference between doing more of something or because you are good at it and doing more of something because you enjoy it. You know your values are a compass. As to, you know, where you are gonna go in, in, in life. I think if you are listening to this conversation and you are really struggling, is that the first thing you need to do is you-



Jaz's Introduction:Hello Protruserati. I'm Jaz Gulati and welcome back to your favorite Dental podcast. This is the interference cast, like the nonclinical arm, but a very important arm of the podcast.



One of the things that Andrea mentioned, is that when she was studying in dental school, that's what it was all about. It was just about studying and becoming a dentist and passing your exams, and I resonated with that so much because our date was 6th of June. I knew that on 6th of June 2013, we were gonna get our results. 



And I could not imagine life beyond the 6th of June. Like it was all about am I gonna become a dentist? This is what I've been building up my last sort of eight to nine years to do. Like I wanted to be a dentist since I was 14, but I couldn't even think about the future and what it will actually be like to be a real dentist in the real world.



Now, fast forward so many years, I have a lot of real world insight and I'd love to share it with you today along with Andrea. I love people like Andrea because they are all about helping us feel fulfilled in dentistry. 



There are plenty of people out there who perhaps dentistry didn't go the way they planned. They leave and now they want to coach you on your exit plan, which I understand, but what I don't believe in is making permanent decisions based on temporary feelings and actually attempting to figure out exactly how to make dentistry work for you.



Now, some things I didn't discuss in the conversation with Andrea, because she was on a roll and I want to give her the space and time to talk about all the wonderful things, including the latter part, the end of the podcast, whereby she actually gives real techniques, is about five techniques she shares to help you feel more fulfilled from dentistry.



But one thing I wanna just talk about while I have this opportunity in the intro is the following. Have you actually put pen to paper to write down what your ideal day actually looks like? Like you are actually allowed to have an ideal day. Have you thought about it? 



I didn't do this until a few years ago, and it made a big difference to my clarity of thinking and where I want to take my career. And the other one, of course is what does your ideal week look like? Once you've decided what your ideal day and ideal week looks like, then make that your goal, that's your aim. 



Why wouldn't you make some decisions right now to make your ideal day and your ideal week become a reality. For example because I think examples really help. I'm someone who if I don't exercise at least three or four times a week, I don't feel like I'm living to my truest value. I become grumpy I don't feel like I'm enjoying my life as much as I could be. And so I know in my ideal week I need that. 



Now, I've had a few years in my career where that wasn't happening, especially when we are building OBAB that was such a huge project. I had to wrongly sacrifice some health for that. But now I'm back on track.



And so slotting that into the ideal week for me is really important, and you make it work and you make some key life decisions. And something that you do with your significant other, you decide that you design your perfect life how do you actually want it to look like, where you're gonna live? What gym membership will I will have to make sure this all happens.



And so it's about living a life of purpose, allowing you to live to your truest values. And that was just one example of me making sure that I designed my ideal day and my ideal life to make sure I get to go to the gym 3-4 times a week.



Another thing that was important to me is like I'm someone, I'm not good at multitasking. I think most, most of us aren't, and we shouldn't be multitasking. It's better to focus on one thing, and I'm particularly bad and like sometimes I get distracted and I feel like really overwhelmed easily. And so when I'm in clinical mode, I'm in clinical mode. And because I love my clinical dentistry, it's not a big deal for me to do a 12 hour shift.



I know it's not for everyone, but I'm more than happy to do an 8:00 AM till 8:00 PM if it means I can work less days. So for me that made perfect sense that I have a really long Monday and now I don't have to work a Thursday anymore, for example. And this has only just come to fruition. It's something that we agreed on about a year ago, and then we had to wait for my Thursday patients to diminish, if you'd like.



And now I really consolidated my clinical days. This allows me to be in the zone on Monday. And whilst I don't get to see my kids much on a Monday, I get to make up for it on the other days. because now three days a week, I get to do either school drop off or a pickup, or both. And the main point of sharing this detail with you, my friend, is that everything I'm trying to do is with great intention, it's on purpose and it's by design.



And it doesn't happen overnight. It actually took a discovery process first, and then you put your action plan, and you relentlessly chase that. And that ideal week may look different for everyone. But if you don't decide what your ideal day or ideal week looks like, then you'll never get it. If you don't know where you're going, how do you know when you'll get there?



Alright, that's quite enough of my rambling. I'll catch you in the outro. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy this podcast with Andrea.



Main Episode:So Doctor Andrea Ogden, it is absolutely a pleasure to have you on Protrusive Dental Podcast. How are you? 



[Andrea]I'm very well, and I'm very excited to be here. So thank you so much for the invitation to come and talk to you today. 



[Jaz]For those of you listening on Spotify, Apple it's a sunny, beautiful day today in the UK for once. And Andrea's looking bright and vibrant and that would really, I think be a great descriptor of some of the content I'm seeing from you, Andrea.



And the top word I'd probably say is relatable. I reached out to you because I'm loving what you're putting out to the universe. So much of the podcast over the last six years. Our tagline is Fall in Love with dentistry again,