Stress and professional burnout among newly graduated dentists

Abstract

Background:Dentists encounter numerous professional stressful situations, beginning from education to day-to-day practice. The resulting stress tends to have a negative impact on their personal as well as professional lives.Objectives:To measure daily burnout, and to investigate the extent of expectations from dental career and the feeling of being unqualified new dental practitioner.Materials and Methods:A close-ended questionnaire, i.e., “the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory,” was utilized for evaluation. A total of 121 dentists with an experience ranging between 6 months and 5 years were included. The period was considered initiating from graduation to dental practicing in urban or rural areas. Ninety-seven dentists replied with filled questionnaires (80.16%). The multivariant analysis was done using SPSS 11.0 ver. (Chicago, USA).Results:Using measures analysis, the mean scores for dentists on the basis of age and sex (n = 97) were calculated. The factors most commonly considered responsible for professional burnout were emotional exhaustion (39.27%), frustrations (47.83%), feeling worn out at the end of the day (35.05%), feeling worn out at the end of the working day (46.80%), exhaustion in the morning at the thought of another day at work (35.05%), feeling that every working hour is tiring (46.80%), less energy and less time for family and friends (47.83%). The most common cause for stress was professional burnout that was recorded commonly in females in the age range of 26–28 years.Conclusions:Dentists are more prone for professional burnout, anxiety, and depression. The main reason for this is the nature of their practice and their personality traits, especially while pursuing dentistry as a carrier. Stress may lead to negative impact on dentists’ personal as well as professional lives.

Correlation of occupational stress with depression, anxiety, and sleep in Korean dentists: cross-sectional study

“…Previous studies on occupational stress and mental health in dentists have identified burnout as a predisposing factor of depression [ 45 , 46 ]. Burnout indicates mental or emotional exhaustion owing to the long-term exposure to stress [ 47 ]. When dentists suffer from burnout, they typically underestimate their accomplishments in a negative and cynical manner in front of their patients.…”

“…Dentists are exposed to a high risk of anxiety and depression since their training as dental college students [ 16 , 25 , 47 , 52 ]. They are also exposed to a high level of stress related to the number of patients per day and workload, general financial status, desire for patient’s excessive requirements, technological perfection needs, and fear of litigation and making mistakes [ 2 , 16 , 17 ].…”

Temporomandibular disorders and Burnout syndrome in students of the eighth period of dentistry course

“…The fact of being enrolled in an undergraduate course in the health area is considered a risk factor for BS development [10]. After the academic training period, the levels of stress, anxiety, and BS in newly formed dentists remain high and can be perpetuated throughout their professional life [20].…”

Androgyny in dentists: The contribution of masculinity and femininity to mental health and well-being

“…Many of them have somatic diseases (Maslak et al, 2014;Bessonova, Shkatova, & Oksuzyan, 2016). Another consequence of stress is burnout (Mazharenko, 2012;Maslak et al, 2014;Vered, Zaken, Ovadia-Gonen, Mann, & Zini, 2014;Kulkarni et al, 2016). The most significant factors in the burnout experienced by dentists are younger age, male sex, high job strain, excessive working hours and certain personality characteristics (Singh, Aulak, Mangat, & Aulak, 2016).…”

“…Some dentists tend to be more susceptible to anxiety and depression (Kulkarni, Dagli, Duraiswamy, Desai, Vyas, & Baroudi, 2016). Many of them have somatic diseases (Maslak et al, 2014;Bessonova, Shkatova, & Oksuzyan, 2016).…”