Sir, during my experience at dental school, I have been overwhelmed by the number of students that experience mental health challenges. These challenges have been described as a range of both physical and psychological symptoms that include but are not limited to palpitations, gastrointestinal disturbances, anxiety and depression.

Whilst there have been comprehensive studies into the mental health of medical students, there has been limited research into the mental health, support and opinions of dental undergraduates during their studies. Dental students participate and endure the pressures of an academically challenging degree accompanied by high contact hours, making them vulnerable to burnout. Throughout this, they are expected to maintain a highly professional demeanour, and are often concerned regarding the implications of declaring mental health complaints.

After sending an online questionnaire aiming to measure mental health challenges faced by dental students based in London, I found that 60.71% (17/28) of dental students acknowledged that they had experienced mental health related challenges during their time at dental school, of whom only 30% sought support. Upon discussions with students it became clear that whilst there are a number of provisions for mental health support, students are often unaware as to how to access them.

Having identified that the majority of dental students experience mental health related challenges at university, there is reason to suggest that stress management and wellbeing courses should be integrated into BDS programmes. There is evidence that mindfulness-based stress reduction training for medical and psychology students has a significant positive effect in mental wellbeing.1 Furthermore, a study by Collin et al. showed that as many at 58.7% of general dental practitioners reported high levels of occupational stress.2 I believe that developing stress management skills from an early stage in the dental career would be beneficial to students' mental health not only during their studies but also in their future careers, in turn resulting in them becoming more competent clinicians providing a high standard of care.