A study to explore specific stressors and coping strategies in primary dental care practice

Abstract

Background and Aims: It is widely acknowledged that dentists experience occupational stress. This qualitative study aimed to explore previously identified specific stressors in more detail in order to inform the development of a future stress management programme. Method: Two focus groups of dentists (N: 7 & 6) were conducted to explore, in more detail, nine specific stressors and concepts; being out of one's comfort zone, zoning out from the patient, celebrating the positive aspects of work, thinking aloud, the effect of hurting patients, the impact of perfectionism, responsibility for patient's self-care, the emotional impact of difficult situations as a foundation dentist. Participants were also asked for their views on the structure and contents of the proposed stress management package. Verbatim transcripts were subjected to thematic analysis. Results and Discussion: Dentists described the impact of these stressors and their current coping methods; thematic analysis revealed 9 themes which covered the above concepts and a further overall theme of need for control. The findings are elaborated in connection to their relevant stress, coping and emotion psychological theory. Their implications for personal well-being and clinical outcomes are discussed. Conclusion: Dentists' stressful and coping experiences are complex and it is essential that any stress management programme reflects this and that the skills are easily accessible and sustainable within the context of a busy dental practice.

A study to explore if dentists' anxiety affects their clinical decision-making

“…Dentists Anxieties in Clinical Situation Scale (DACSS) -A pool of 30 items was generated based on the stressors revealed by previous research. eg 4,6,7,36 The subjective importance of the stressors to dentists, as revealed by a previous study, 7 influenced the final choice of 20 items for inclusion, which was made by the 3 researchers in committee. For each of the 20 items, dentists were asked to rate their anxiety on an 11 point Likert scale anchored 0 (not at all) & 10 (the most intense emotion you can experience).…”

“…In the dental context, stress has been implicitly associated with anxiety and worry-type emotions. However, Chapman and colleagues [6][7][8] reported that stress may be accompanied by a variety of negative emotions such as frustration and guilt.…”

Oral cancer: A point to chew upon

“…Occupational stress with high risks of burnout is widely acknowledged amongst dental practitioners, especially in those who work in the NHS. [3][4][5] Although musculoskeletal diseases were the most commonly reported cause of ill-health retirement in the paper, 1 only 12% of cases (n = 30) were so related within the OPRA dataset. Interestingly, 37 cases (15%) that were reported by OPs were cases related to either dermatological or respiratory causes, suggesting different risks leading to a wide range of WRIH conditions.…”

“…Women in this area also have a misconstrued belief that chewing tobacco increases energy for daily labour in the face of limited food intake and to suppress hunger. 4 Easy availability, poor socio-economic status, illiteracy and the low cost of the SLT are other key factors that promotes SLT use by women. 4 Moreover, the use of tobacco-based dentifrices (mishri, gul and lal dant manjan) further aggravates the problem.…”

“…4 Easy availability, poor socio-economic status, illiteracy and the low cost of the SLT are other key factors that promotes SLT use by women. 4 Moreover, the use of tobacco-based dentifrices (mishri, gul and lal dant manjan) further aggravates the problem. The quit ratio for SLT is notoriously low (5%) as compared to smoking.…”