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"How obsessive are dental students?" - A personality styles & disorder inventory-based cross-sectional, controlled
Thomas Gerhard Wolf1, Christina Röthlin2, Lisa Hilse2
1Department of Restorative, Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern, Switzerland; Department of Periodontology and Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany.
Journal of Dentistry
|June 28, 2026
Summary
Dental professionals exhibit higher perfectionism and stress than psychologists. Personality styles evolve with experience, suggesting a need for further research into dental education and patient care.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Dental Medicine
- Occupational Health
Background:
- Personality styles may differ between students and professionals in demanding fields like dentistry.
- Understanding these differences is crucial for professional development and well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare personality styles across dental students, practicing dentists, psychology students, and psychotherapists.
- To identify variations linked to academic versus professional stages and disciplines.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Personality-Styles-and-Disorders-Inventory (PSDI) for personality assessment.
- Compared 249 dental students, 162 dentists, 160 psychology students, and 430 psychotherapists.
- Analyzed 14 distinct personality styles across the four groups.
Main Results:
- Significant personality style differences were observed among the four cohorts.
- Students exhibited higher emotionality and stress-related styles; dental students showed high stress, burnout, depression, and low optimism.
- Professionals displayed "functional adaptation"; dentists showed elevated compulsiveness (precision, perfectionism) increasing with experience, while psychotherapists had the most balanced profile.
Conclusions:
- Dentists exhibit greater precision and perfectionism compared to psychologists, who display more flexibility.
- Professionalization generally leads to adaptive personality styles, but compulsive traits persist and may intensify in dentists.
- Findings suggest an interaction between innate traits and professional socialization, warranting longitudinal investigation.
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