Sir, we have read with much interest the article on stress and burnout in UK general dental practitioners in your journal.1
It is well known that dentistry is a very stressful profession and for us, dental general practitioners (GDPs) from Peru, we totally agree and support the findings of this paper. However, it would be enriching to read possible solutions or suggestions for dealing with stress and burnout.
Recently there have not been many articles about the causes of stress and its relationship with burnout for general dentist practitioners. There is some previous research as this has been an issue for some time. In 1995, it was documented that stress includes a series of signs and symptoms, and that for general dentists, is associated with early retirement and increased risk of suicide.
Over the past 24 years, many papers have been written about this topic. As GDPs we are interested not only in the causes or subdimensions of stress (patient-led, productivity, work content and regulatory stress) the degree of burnout and how it increases with age and experience, but also in the solutions or methods that may help to reduce this problem.2,3,4
There are no recent articles addressing ways to reduce the stress and burnout. Today there is a need for studies that show a possibility of primary solutions to this issue.
In one study that offered primary interventions to deal with dental practitioners' stress, there was no control group and a small sample size. To date there has not been a well-structured study that addresses this problem.5
References
Toon M, Collin V, Whitehead P, Reynolds L. An analysis of stress and burnout in UK general dental practitioners: subdimensions and causes. Br Dent J 2019; 226: 125-130.
Freeman R, Main J R R, Burke F J T. Occupational stress and dentistry: Theory and practice. Part I Recognition. Br Dent J 1995; 178: 214-217.
Langade D, Modi P D, Sidhwa Y F, et al. Burnout Syndrome Among Medical Practitioners Across India: A Questionnaire-Based Survey. Cureus 2016; 8: 771-782.
Jugale P V, Mallaiah P, Krishnamurthy A, Sangha R. Burnout and Work Engagement Among Dental Practitioners in Bangalore City: A Cross-Sectional Study. J Clin Diagn Res. 2016; 10: 63-67.
Newton J T, Allen C D, Coates J, Turner A, Prior J. How to reduce the stress of general dental practice: the need for research into the effectiveness of multifaceted interventions. Br Dent J 2006; 200: 437-440.
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Mattos, A., Tirado, L. Burn out solutions needed. Br Dent J 226, 541 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-019-0288-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-019-0288-5
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British Dental Journal (2019)