Prioritizing dental assistants’ health with the Well-Being Index

This article is contributed by Lois Bell, CDA, CPFDA, CRFDA, CDIPC, MADAA, a member of the American Dental Association’s Dental Team Wellness Advisory Committee.

In dentistry, it is said that we measure precision in millimeters and success in patient smiles. But how often do we measure the well-being of the people behind the masks and gloves?

It is no secret that dental assisting can be a stressful occupation. The pressures of long hours, physical demands of working chairside, time constraints on rapid room turnovers, duties in sterilization/infection control, and emotional drain of many patient appointments can quietly build into stress and burnout. You likely love your job, but have you ever felt drained before your day even began? Maybe you brushed it off as “just being tired” until one day, you realized something could be really wrong?

Tija Hunter, CDA, EFDA, wrote in a DentistryIQ article that “burnout sneaks up on even the most dedicated team members — the hard workers who take pride in their work and go above and beyond to do whatever it takes to help, the team members who help everyone, and those who come in early and leave late.”

Burnout isn’t just about being tired after a long workday — it’s a three-part syndrome of emotional exhaustion, cynicism/detachment, and reduced personal accomplishment, according to  Psychology Today. How many of us reach a breaking point only to wonder how long this has been going on? How many of us think about tracking our “off” days? You are not alone. But tracking your mental health is a proactive way to understand your emotional patterns, detect early warning signs, and support long-term well-being. You do not have to have a diagnosis, as everyone can benefit from regular self-monitoring.

Supporting the well-being of dental professionals

In efforts to support the mental well-being of all dental professionals, the American Dental Association (ADA) has expanded free access to the ADA’s licensed version of the Mayo Clinic’s Dental Well-Being Index (WBI) to all dental professionals, including dental assistants. The WBI is an online self-assessment tool invented by Mayo Clinic that measures across six dimensions of distress and well-being in just nine questions.

This access matters to dental assistants and other dental team members because unless you work for a dental support organization (DSO), large practice, government organization, federally qualified health center, or nonprofit, chances are you do not have a workplace wellness package as an employee benefit. It was not until the late 1970s that dental practices started to consider wellness packages and only in the mid-2000s that workplace wellness became a strategic priority, and in 2026, we’re seeing wellness packages as a standard part of modern dental office culture. The WBI can be a strong, standalone employee wellness benefit because it directly supports mental health, which is linked to positive habits and overall wellness.

What is the Well-Being Index and the ADA connection?

It is important to understand what the Well-Being Index is to appreciate its value and impact on dental team members. Mayo Clinic researchers created the WBI over a decade ago to address a critical gap in measuring clinician well-being. The leadership recognized existing workplace surveys were too long, cumbersome, and often focused narrowly on burnout. They also lacked anonymity, immediate resources, and comprehensive reporting tools.

Their goal was to develop a simple, anonymous, and rapid assessment that could:

• Measure multiple dimensions of distress and well-being in under a minute.
• Predict risk of distress across six dimensions (e.g., burnout, fatigue, suicidal ideation, quality of life, meaning in work, work-life integration).
• Provide immediate access to customized resources.
• Offer administrators comprehensive, longitudinal data to track progress.

After years of research, internal use, and rigorous validation, the nine-question WBI tool was finally launched as a clinically validated self-assessment, later licensed to MedEd Web Solutions for distribution to other organizations. It is used by over 1,000 organizations worldwide and is 100% anonymous.

Key features:

• Simplicity — nine questions taking under a minute to answer.
• Accessibility — web-based.
• Anonymous and secure — the assessment is 100% anonymous, with individual responses, scores, and data never shared with institutions. Data is stored securely in cloud servers and only provided to administrators in de-identified aggregate format. Users may use personal email addresses, and usernames are never revealed to organizations.
• Rapid assessment — provides immediate access to customized resources. It goes beyond traditional burnout assessments to provide a holistic view of well-being.
• Tracks well-being over time.

It is not a diagnostic tool, and it will not label you with a condition, but it does provide you with a snapshot of your current risk level for burnout, fatigue, and other wellness-related concerns.

ADA’s adoption and licensing

Though the Mayo Clinic’s WBI was originally developed for physicians, it has since been adapted for multiple healthcare roles to include dentistry. The ADA has used the WBI since 2023 when they first piloted it with a small cohort of wellness ambassadors, and in 2025, they expanded access to all team members. The ADA-licensed version directly connects participants to resources from the ADA and over 30 state dental associations. Users can continue to take the index at a selected frequency and reference results on their own personal dashboard.

Why it matters for dental assistants and the documentation

Mayo Clinic’s creation of the Well-Being Index was a response to the growing recognition that clinician burnout and distress are systemic issues affecting patient care. You find daily entries on social media acknowledging that assisting is taking “a serious toll on my mental health to the point of just getting out [of the profession] altogether.” The Dental Assisting National Board found that about one in five dental assistants left their jobs in the previous year. It is a striking turnover rate, and it reflects the cumulative effect of all the stressors previously described plus more.

Something particularly interesting is the Mayo Clinic’s 2025-2026 Annual State of Well-Being in Health Care Report. Each year, Mayo Clinic analyzes tens of thousands of Well-Being Index assessments across many healthcare professions to create the State of Well-Being Report — a comprehensive look at key trends, risks, and opportunities for healthcare. The 2025 report is built on data from over 72,000 assessments completed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025. In the subsection, “Report by Practice Type,” dentistry was broken down into the categories of dentist, hygienist, and dental assistant.

Key insights:

• Hygienists – distressed and struggling at 59.5%
• Dental assistants – distressed and struggling at 53.6%
• Dentists – distressed and struggling at 43%

The report continues: “This inversion — where the highest-credentialed role experiences the least distress — highlights that support roles in dental practices bear a disproportionate burden. This is one of the most notable findings in dentistry: the highest emotional hardening rate of any group (49%) coexists with support staff facing even greater challenges. . . . Well-being strategies for dental teams should consider the distinct experiences of hygienists and assistants rather than treating the dental team as a single group.”

Knowing how to use the Well-Being Index

1. Access: Go to the ADA.org/wellness or the WBI signup page using the code “ADA Wellness”
2. Complete the assessment: The WBI consists of nine simple yes/no or slider-scale questions and takes less than one minute to complete. You can retake the assessment every one to three months to track changes in your well-being over time and understand how specific events can affect your mental health.
3. Review your results: You will receive a score indicating your relative risk level compared to your dental professional peers.
4. Review the resources: Based on your results, the tool will suggest resources, from stress management tips to counseling services.
5. Repeat regularly: Wellness is not static. Checking in monthly or quarterly can help you track your changes and trends to see if your self-care strategies are working.

Source: American Dental Association

Exploring the benefits for you and your practice

• Self-awareness: You can understand your stress levels before they escalate.
• Early intervention: You can access resources before burnout impacts your health or performance.
• Confidentiality: Your results are private — no one in your workplace sees them unless you choose to share them.
• Culture of wellness: When dental teams use tools like the Well-Being Index, it sends a message that mental and emotional health are valued.

Source: American Dental Association

Prioritizing your well-being

Our role as a dental assistant is vital to patient care — but you cannot pour from an empty cup. The Mayo Clinic’s Well-Being Index offers a simple, evidenced-based way to check in with yourself, help you identify risks, and connect with support.

By making your well-being a priority, you are not only protecting your health, but you are also ensuring that you can continue to bring your best self to your patients, your team, and your career.