What every dentist should know about the hidden struggles of retirement

While there is often a focus for dentists when retirement is discussed about the financial side of the future, there is rarely talk about the emotional side of retirement and what comes next. That's where Dr. Marc Cooper is hoping to make an impact.

I have personally worked with Dr. Cooper for years on the subject of dental service organizations (DSOs) and what they will mean for the dental industry. Now, however, Cooper's focus has shifted to helping all dentists (whether they are DSO-affiliated or not) prepare to find meaning after they put down the handpiece and walk away from the operatory.

"I can describe some things that will occur," Cooper told me about the average dentist's retirement during our interview, which you can watch below. "They'll be so excited to stop being at the chair. It's like, freedom at last, free at last! And they have all these extraordinary plans of what they'll do with their free time. And the cruises and the travel and the Louvre and the grandkids and the beach and the time to go out to eat with my spouse, all of that," Cooper said.

"But after 16 to 18 months, something begins to show up, and this is universal, which is a kind of despair, a kind of, I don't know who I am anymore. I don't know what I'm doing here. My grandkids are teenagers now. I can't do more of that. So now what? So what's missing is purpose. And for most of the time, the kind of purposes that they've served have been conventional purposes. Get a job, make money, do great dentistry, do your courses, keep up with your CE. They were always on that purpose. But you can't go back and use a commercial purpose for the next stage of life. You have to find a higher purpose, and most aren't."

With that in mind, Cooper believes dentists need to prepare now for what's to come financially and emotionally.

You can watch our entire interview below.

Cooper's book, "Older to Elder: The Thinking and Being of a Contemporary Elder" will be available on October 1. Learn more about Dr. Cooper at RequestingWisdom or DrMarcBCooper.