Empathy in dental care – the role of vicarious trauma

Abstract

Objectives In health care, empathy is associated with compassion, thoughtfulness, attentiveness and caring. While empathy is perceived as desirable and positive, it can potentially be associated with negative aspects, such as secondary traumatic stress or vicarious trauma (VT). VT addresses the secondary vicarious influences of patients’ pain and discomfort on clinicians. Dentists are routinely exposed to patients’ anxiety, pain and discomfort. These may lead to VT, which in turn can affect empathy. The objectives of the present study were to examine the existence of VT among dentists and its association with their empathic approach. Materials and methods Two‐hundred and fifty dentists were approached personally and by mail, and asked to complete: (i) the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy – Health Professionals; (ii) the Vicarious Trauma Scale; and (iii) demographic, personal and professional data, including age, definition of professional speciality, number of working hours per week and number of sleeping hours per night. Results A total of 200 dentists responded (80% response rate). No differences were found between genders regarding empathy or VT. Dentists who have been accredited as a specialist in one of the dental fields (dental specialists) presented higher empathy scores than general practitioners. VT correlated positively with number of working hours per week and negatively with empathy. The best predictor of empathy was number of sleeping hours per night, followed by VT and age. Conclusions Empathy in the clinical setting is closely associated with secondary VT among dentists. Decreasing dentists’ VT may benefit dentists’ empathy and through this lead to better clinical outcomes.

Appraisal of empathy among dental interns and postgraduate students at King Abdulaziz University: A cross‐sectional study

“…Previous studies have shown that age was related to high empathy levels as older dentists become more experienced, and more self-confident with higher self-efficacy. 5,23,27 Research conducted on adults from 63 countries was performed by three American universities and ranked Saudi Arabia second in empathy level. 47 However mean score of empathy levels of Saudi students was lower than the dental students in other countries.…”

“…Therefore, the purpose of this research is to study the empathy levels of dental interns and postgraduate students given their critical transitional period and different career demands. While previous studies have shown that age and females as gender were related to high empathy levels, 5,23,27 we hypothesized that females and older participants, whether they are interns or postgraduate students, will be more empathetic. Also based on several researches 8,12,17 we hypothesized that graduate students may have a lower level of empathy because of their workload which may impair or lower their empathetic tendencies.…”

“…2 Dentophobia expressed by fear and anxiety from dental treatment represents 6%-15% of the world's adult population. 3 The increase in fear and anxiety of patients with pain and before the dental treatment 4,5 necessitates the need for empathetic dentists. Empathy is a desirable type of "chairside manner" that initiates effective harmony between dentists and patients.…”

Empathy in Professors and Students of a School of Dentistry in the Caribbean

“…The premise of solid empathy training for professors could be a factor contributing to increase the possibility of success in clinical activity by their students. In this case, the professor executes actions that end up presenting positive attitude models for their students and strengthening their educational process [4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…The foregoing ideas imply that empathy training for students must constitute an ongoing objective for universities and become manifest as an effective policy related to the incorporation of empathy into training of all Health Sciences careers [1,2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. In keeping with the above, the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) [12] has stated that empathy is the second essential clinical competency for all dentists.…”