Stress and professional burnout among newly graduated dentists

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.

To measure daily burnout, and to investigate the extent of expectations from dental career and the feeling of being unqualified new dental practitioner.

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).

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.

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.