When hygienists feel stuck: Rethinking growth, change, and self-care in dental hygiene

When growth requires change

Dental hygienists are often service-driven by nature. That instinct is part of what makes the profession so meaningful, but it can also make it harder to notice when you are feeling stuck, stretched, or ready for a different kind of growth.

In this episode of the RDH Magazine Podcast, Jackie Sanders welcomes MB Gustitus, author of Root Bound: Break Free From Feeling Stuck—It's Your Time to Thrive and the companion Thrive workbook. Using the image of a root-bound plant, Gustitus gives hygienists a practical way to think about what happens when the space they are in no longer supports the growth they need.

The conversation also previews Gustitus’ mega session at RDH Under One Roof, where she will help hygienists look at signs of being stuck, the places where change may be needed, and how to navigate growth with more clarity when change is chosen—or when life forces it.

Key insights

1. You can be successful and still feel root bound. If you look steady on paper but feel constrained, depleted, or less energized by work that once felt meaningful, that may be worth noticing rather than dismissing.

2. Service-driven hygienists often delay asking, “What about me?” The same caregiving instinct that makes you attentive to patients and teams can also make it easy to put your own needs, growth, and limits last.

3. Growth may require a change in the space around you. Gustitus’ root-bound metaphor gives hygienists a useful way to think about whether their current role, routine, or expectations still leave room for the next stage of professional or personal growth.

4. Change is easier to navigate when you name what is actually happening. Rather than treating discomfort as failure or restlessness, the episode invites hygienists to assess where they feel stuck, what is holding them back, and what may be calling them forward.

5. Putting yourself first does not have to conflict with caring for others. Gustitus frames self-prioritization as an empowered choice that can support healthier work, relationships, and service—not as a rejection of the caregiver role.

6. Not all change arrives on your terms. Sometimes you choose to “break the pot,” and sometimes life forces the break for you. Either way, resilience becomes part of how hygienists move through change rather than simply endure it.

7. Reflection works best when it leads to practical next steps. The conversation points hygienists toward taking inventory, recognizing patterns, and considering what needs to change instead of staying in a vague place of feeling stuck.

Transcript

Jackie Sanders

Welcome back, everyone, and thank you for joining us. My name is Jackie Sanders, chief editor of RDH Magazine, and today I am spending time with my new friend, Mary Beth Gustitus.

Hello, Mary Beth. How are you today?

Mary Beth Gustitus

Hi, how are you? Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to spend time with you.

Jackie Sanders

Well, this is one of those friendships that was supposed to be.

So we actually met—I met Heather McGuire last year when she started up with Philips. And the more we got to know each other, she was like, “You just have to meet my friend MB.” And we did. And look where we are today.

Mary Beth Gustitus

It was love at first sight for me, actually.

Jackie Sanders

It actually was.

So to our listeners, so you can experience what I have experienced with this woman the last year, MB is actually going to be our mega session speaker on Friday morning at RDH Under One Roof, sponsored by Philips.

And I guess I'm going to start, Mary Beth, tell us about your book titled Root Bound.

The idea behind Root Bound

Mary Beth Gustitus

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yes, Root Bound. So Root Bound was born after a series of events, over a long period of time, where I could not verbalize what I was feeling on the inside. And what I was feeling was things that I used to love and things that used to excite me and bring me energy and bring me joy suddenly didn't.

And I wrestled with this for, gosh, a couple of years, just kind of like, what's going on inside? And one day I was working with my plants. And I went to bed, and I was thinking about two things.

One was the plants that I had been nurturing that, despite all of my efforts, still were not doing great. And the other one was my coaching clients that, regardless of how much success they achieved, they were just feeling stuck.

So I went to bed sort of thinking about these two things: these plants that weren't thriving and these people that weren't thriving. And my unconscious mind just went to work.

And that night I woke up and I started to just sort of create this idea of, gosh, people and plants kind of can do the same thing. And that's become root bound. And that's where we can outgrow, right? We can outgrow the spaces that we're in.

And that was the beginning of a couple-of-year journey. And now what I'm so excited to talk to your group about, which is how do we navigate change in a healthy way and resilience as well.

Learning to lean into change

Jackie Sanders

And change is such a constant in our lives. I mean, I've got huge changes going on in my life right now. And it's something that once you learn how to manage it and direct it and control it, makes life, I mean, even more easy?

Is that the right word? Or exciting?

Mary Beth Gustitus

I think that we can lean in. I think we can lean in. And I don't think that we're so afraid, maybe fearful or have anxiety over what's gonna come or what if things change.

Well, guess what? Things are gonna change. That's the only thing we know for sure.

So I think having strategies around what might that look like and also making it okay to allow change to happen and to be decisive about making changes, even if the people in our world don't understand it, maybe don't like it, maybe don't even support it.

It's okay for us to make those decisions for ourselves.

Jackie Sanders

And when you embrace it, it almost gives you control back. You know, you can't stop change, but you can participate and decide the direction.

And I have to, I've told you this the other day on the phone call, I do a lot of gardening and planting, and I do not pull a plant out of its Home Depot pot from the spring that I don't think of you. I'm like, this poor little plant has been stuck in here getting Miracle-Gro for six months, and it just wants to breathe.

Mary Beth Gustitus

I love that. Oh my God. I love that.

Root Bound and the Thrive workbook

Jackie Sanders

To our listeners, like I said, MB's going to be at Under One Roof, but if you want to get a jump ahead, she's actually written a book called Root Bound: Break Free From Feeling Stuck—It's Your Time to Thrive.

And then the funnest part for hygienists, because we're hands-on, imagine that, is she also has a book. It's called Thrive: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Life by Design.

Now, I got both of these books on Amazon. Is that still the best place to find them?

Mary Beth Gustitus

It is. Easiest and best place. Yep.

Jackie Sanders

Thank you for—

Mary Beth Gustitus

The shout-out there.

Jackie Sanders

Absolutely, because this is something that it's not like a really thick book that you look at and you're thinking, I'm never going to get through this. I was so inspired that I got through it in one night, and I did start my workbook right away.

So it's an easy concept to understand. It doesn't have so many different directions and so many different steps you're confused. So I think a hygienist would love it because it's structured, and that's what we like. We like structure.

Mary Beth Gustitus

Yeah, and it's to the point.

It was funny when I first got the book back, right? So when I first wrote the book and I was getting the first copy back, I'll be honest with you.

I went to all of my entrepreneurial friends and I said, I felt kind of bad, to be honest. It was so small. No, I was, and I really kind of struggled with that.

And they said, “B, look, this book, every page has something of importance in it. There's no fluff, there's no extra. There's no redundancy.”

But at first I was like, guys, and I feel like I had to explain that, right? Like, this is not War and Peace. This is really—and they said, “But it's purpose.”

It's very, yeah. So they helped me through that. But yes, it's a quick read. It's a quick read but a deep think, I hope. That's my wish for you. My wish for anyone listening is that it's a quick read but a deep think.

Jackie Sanders

Yeah, and it is that.

And I am one of those people that when I purchase a book, it's now my book. So I write all over in my books. So this is a book that has notes.

I make notes in my books, the things I read and how they apply to my life. So this cute little thing is, what is it, dog-eared. I've gone through it so many times, and it's got all kinds of notes in it.

And so I hope all of my fellow hygienists do the same because it will help you embrace the changes that go on in our life every day.

So what else might you be talking about Friday morning at Under One Roof?

What hygienists can expect at Under One Roof

Mary Beth Gustitus

Oh gosh, I can't wait to get there.

So Friday morning, we're going to be talking about how to know what might the signs be that you're—what might it look like? How do you assess?

We're gonna be taking an inventory of that. We're gonna be talking about where are the places that we get stuck. We're gonna talk about ways to navigate growth.

We're gonna talk about some strategies of how do you, when you've determined that I'm stuck in an area, what do you do about it? How do you navigate it?

We're going to talk about some strategies about resilience, because guess what? Sometimes we break the pot that we're in and we decide to make a change. And sometimes life shows up, like it or not, and it will shatter the pot that we live in.

I can tell you my own experience is that sometimes, you know, growth has shown up in ways that shattered the pot in an instant for me. And I'm going to share some of those stories as well, what happened, and also some strategies of how to navigate such things.

So very, very excited about that. And the idea with Root Bound is that, you know what, we can all be wildly successful, we can be happy, and we can be root bound at the same time. And that growth demands change. It just demands it.

And so learning how to navigate with as much certainty and comfort as we can, I think will really help people not only in their work life.

My hope for this audience is that they sit there and think, where else in my life can I apply this?

And honestly, I hope that they're sitting there going, this is more valuable for me as a human, as a person navigating families and relationships and work, but that it's really going to give them some things to think about to go in as many different directions as they want to.

Giving hygienists space to focus on themselves

Jackie Sanders

And that is a gift, thank you, because that is one thing that hygienists normally do not do, and that is pay attention to themselves or provide themselves forgiveness or provide themselves growth.

And I think that's one reason Under One Roof is just so energetic, is because it is a bunch of individuals who have actually taken the time to focus on what their needs are. And I think the audience is just going to love everything you have to share. So thank you.

Mary Beth Gustitus

Well, I am so excited. And you know, we're going to have some fun too. I tend to.

Jackie Sanders

With you, I can't imagine that.

Mary Beth Gustitus

We're just—and you know what? I truly do. I love people that are service-driven.

And I know that hygienists are service-driven people. I've worked with a lot of DSOs. I've coached DSOs. I've coached, you know, people in the dental industry. And I know their hearts are serving hearts.

Jackie Sanders

Yes.

Mary Beth Gustitus

And I know that they also don't tend their own gardening. Right. And so, except on Saturday.

And so my hope is that for just our 90 minutes together, that they have an opportunity to—and that we're going to create an environment for 90 minutes for them to say, what about me?

Yeah.

What do I want? Where might I grow? What is calling me forward? What is holding me back? What am I saying yes to that, really, I mean maybe, and maybe I mean no?

Where are those places and spaces? And that they leave giving themselves permission to put themselves first and to even consider what that might look like.

Jackie Sanders

And that's huge. That's huge.

Because some hygienists, myself, until many, many years ago, I felt it was selfish to pay attention to my own needs. I thought I was here to take care of everybody else around me first. And boy, was that an eye-opener.

But I want to, of course, I knew this time was going to fly by. But I want to let our listeners know, if you want to get ahead of the game, if you want to get started on this exciting journey early, both of the books, Root Bound and the Thrive Workbook, are available on Amazon.

They're under the name MB for Mary Beth. It's Gustitus, G-U-S-T-I-T-U-S.

And you could get a jump start on finding out what you truly want or what's holding you back or why you're still stuck in the same pot. And then when you hear MB at Under One Roof, it's going to sink in and soak in and be even more impactful and powerful.

Anything you want to add to that?

Putting yourself first in an empowered way

Mary Beth Gustitus

I think you did a great job in just nailing that.

And I just, I'm so much looking forward to this opportunity and to work with your group, truly, truly. Because what I know is that everybody deserves to thrive.

And I know that for people that say, I went into an industry or a role thinking that I had to put myself—couldn't put myself first, know that those were decisions that we all made for those of us that are those servant-heart caregivers first.

Jackie Sanders

Yeah.

Mary Beth Gustitus

We were that before we picked the roles. That's why we picked the role.

And it's an opportunity just to reevaluate. It's just an opportunity to reevaluate. Because I, like you, was raised where putting myself first felt very, very selfish. And it was hard to learn how to do that.

And so I want other people to know if that's what they're feeling, they have every right to be able to put themselves first, not in a selfish way, but in an empowered way that will make everything in their life better, including their relationships, serving the people they love and care for.

So I just cannot tell you how excited I am. I hope everybody gets up nice and early so that they can be in the room. Again, we're going to have a lot of fun, and yeah, I'm just thrilled, thrilled to be part of it.

Jackie Sanders

Well, I think this is just going to be the start of something bigger. I have a feeling we're going to be working more together, Mary Beth, and I can't wait to spend time with you.

So that's it.

Mary Beth Gustitus

Back at you. Back at you, new friend.

A message for listeners considering Under One Roof

Jackie Sanders

To our listeners, if you're not already signed up for Under One Roof, this one definitely is going to make you want to sign up because this woman has a very powerful, impactful message that isn't just about you in the clinical setting. This is about you as a human being and what you have to offer and bring to the table.

So Mary Beth, thank you for your time. Are there any final words you want to say to our listeners before we have to shut this down?

Mary Beth Gustitus

Just thank you, truly thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening. And I am so looking forward to seeing you and meeting you at RDH.

Jackie Sanders

Okay, everybody have a great day. Until we see you, take care and hope to talk soon. Bye-bye.

Keep up with RDH Magazine

Narrator

Thank you for listening to this episode of RDH Magazine Podcast. We hope you enjoyed this interview.

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Hygienists come for the education, but stay for the community. See you next time.

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