Prevalence and Characteristic of Headache in Dental Professionals: A Questionnaire Based Survey

Medical and dental streams in today's date are considered highly demanding and stressful educational environments. Dental professionals, students and faculty, encounter great deal of stress in form of academic stress and job performance. Headache is a major and common neurological problem and is the main reason for decreased work performance, absenteeism and behavioral disturbances in dental professionals.

In current scenario of increasing stressful conditions in dental professionals, the present study was carried out with an aim to assess the prevalence and characteristic of headache in dental professionals in Udaipur, India.

A cross-sectional questionnaire based study was conducted in a private dental teaching hospital in Udaipur. The undergraduate, postgraduate dental students and faculty members, who gave consent, were included in the study. Information regarding the reason for headache and its various parameters was collected. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 22 and descriptive statistics was used to compare the results obtained.

The headache was found to be prevalent in 87.1% of the subjects included in the study. Females (91.9%) were more frequently affected by headaches than males (87.1%).

It can be concluded from the present study that headache was the main cause of absenteeism at school and work, mood and behavioral changes and inappropriate work actions.