Stress as an occupational health risk for dentists

ABSTRACT
Dentistry is considered a stressful profession, since during their practice dentists are exposed to potential stressors. Therefore, the objective of this study was “to identify chronic stress levels of dentists and their association with different risk factors in dentists working at public health institutions in Guadalajara, Mexico.” The study was observational, cross-sectional and one of association. The universe of this study was 256 dentists that were obtained by means of a census technique. The instrument used for this analysis made in the year 2006 was: Stress Syndrome Inventory performed with concurrent validation. Information was processed for the analysis, and chronic stress levels were identified with a bivaried analysis with the association strength measured with OR; confusion factors were controlled with a multivaried logistic analysis. Based on the results found, it was concluded that female dentists have a greater risk of developing high chronic stress level with an adjusted OR of 2.075; i.e., twice the rate for men.