Burnout in dental students: Navigating stress, exhaustion and academic pressure

Dentistry is quite a challenging profession which demands physical and mental efforts along with patient interaction, resulting in burnout. Student burnout is defined as 'negative reactions resulting in emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment along with reduced academic efficiency due to prolonged academic stress'. Burnout is commonly associated with high stress levels, anxiety and depression. Students' well-being may improve if these psychological issues are addressed and managed at an early age. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of burnout in dental students of our institute and find its relationship to socio-demographic characteristics.

This questionnaire-based study was conducted in our institute, and a total of 200 dental students were included in the study. Students were surveyed using a self-reported questionnaire that included 25 questions related to burnout symptoms, stress, anxiety, depression and demographic characteristics. The Google Forms questionnaire was sent via e-mail to the target students, and their responses were recorded.

The study showed that the following categories of students were more stressed than others: postgraduate students (28.1%), students belonging to middle-class socioeconomic status (77.4%) and female (54.3%) students.

It is pertinent to mention here that in our study, we have not used any specific scale like depression anxiety stress scale-21 (DASS-21), Maslach Burnout Inventory scale, etc., Instead, we prepared a questionnaire for dental students of our institute based on anxiety, stress, etc., Hence, we are of the opinion that further research is warranted to explore additional factors contributing to burnout and mental health issues among dental students and to develop effective strategies for prevention and intervention.