Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Feature
  • Published:

The balancing act: Life as a dental student

BDJ Student volume 32, pages 18–21 (2025)Cite this article

What is balance? For most, it's a precarious seesaw, teetering between responsibilities, or the act of inching across a canyon on a tightrope spun from a single strand called organisation - as fragile and nerve-wracking as prepping a crown disto-lingually sans mirror.

If life as a dental student were a balancing act, the tightrope hangs over an abyss of overwhelm, with the whir of buzzing dental drills whispering from the depths - precarious, exhausting, and not for the faint-hearted. The constant juggle of clinical practice, academic demands, and personal commitments often leaves us questioning whether balance is a myth crafted by motivational posters and influencer posers.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

References

  1. BrownB. A concise summary of Brené Brown's Daring greatly ... in 30 minutes. Garamond Press; 2012.

  2. Kleitman N. Sleep and wakefulness. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press; 1987.

  3. Cirillo F. The Pomodoro Technique. Currency; 2018.

  4. Clear J. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. New York: Penguin Publishing Group; 2018.

  5. Mark G, Gudith D, Klocke U. The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress. Florence, Italy: Association for Computing Machinery; 2008.

  6. Baumeister R F, Leary M R. The Need to belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation. Psychol Bulletin 1995; 117: 497-529.

  7. Hamari J, Koivisto J, Sarsa H. Does Gamification Work? -- a Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification. 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2014; 3025-3034.

  8. Schaaf R C, Davies PL. Evolution of the Sensory Integration Frame of Reference. Am J Occ Ther 2010; 64: 363-367.

  9. Diabetes Spectrum. Mindful Eating: The Art of Presence While You Eat. 2017. Available from https://spectrum.diabetesjournals.org/content/30/3/171 (accessed December 2024).

  10. Lorde A. A Burst of Light: and Other Essays. Mineola, New York: Ixia Press; 2017.

  11. Maslach C, Leiter M P. The truth about burnout: how organisations cause personal stress and what to do about it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint, Dr; 1997.

  12. Refinery29.com.Reclaiming Audre Lorde's Radical Self-CareReclaiming Audre Lorde's Radical Self-Care. 2021. Available from: https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2021/05/10499036/reclaiming-self-care-audre-lorde-black-women-community-care (accessed December 2024).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. King´s College London, London, United Kingdom

    Hfsa Fahad

Authors
  1. Hfsa Fahad
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hfsa Fahad.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fahad, H. The balancing act: Life as a dental student. BDJ Student 32, 18–21 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41406-025-1472-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41406-025-1472-5

Search

Advanced search

Quick links