Sir, I found the recent paper by Newton et al.1 to be very interesting and a welcome assessment of the need for further research into the various stressors affecting dentists and dental care professionals. However, the statement, 'General dental practitioners have a higher risk of suicide than the general population' is not supported by the available evidence, as documented by Alexander,2 in his excellent literature review of the subject, published in 2001, nor by any further statistically significant evidence I have been able to find. It appears that a 1933 study, which I have been unable to locate, looked at the suicide rates between various workers, including dentists, lawyers and doctors and concluded that this group was at a much higher risk than other white collar workers. In the 1960s, the findings of this study were further promulgated and the myth of higher dentists' suicide rates continued.

However, even if there is no significant difference in suicide rates between dentists and the general population, there is a great need for research into the causes, prevention and treatment options for dentists and DCPs of factors leading to increased stress and eventually, professional burnout syndrome. Since professional burnout syndrome may ultimately lead to suicidal intent or even an event, it is important to recognise and prevent this. Along the way the dentist or DCP may develop a psychological mood disorder, dysthymia, as discussed by Frey3 in his paper, which is a chronic, prolonged disease and difficult to diagnose, as it is less severe than the major depressive illnesses.

At least, as a profession, we should discuss these issues – in the same way that substance abuse is now openly discussed – and put together the resources for data collection and analysis of the stress related problems affecting the dental team. Perhaps we have also been a little blinkered, as frequently happens in dentistry, so rather than just concentrating on our own field, and that of medicine in general, we could look to other professions and groups of workers, whom we may find to be under greater stress than we are, and examine how they identify and treat these stressors.