The Wealthy Dentist conducted a survey to ask dentists if they have ever suffered from professional burnout.

4 out of 5 dentists respondents said that they have experienced professional burnout in their dental careers.

Possible root causes are demanding patient interactions, negative perceptions about dentistry, financial pressures from dental practice management, challenging workloads, ever-changing new dental technologies, and lack of resources needed to create change.

Burnout in dentistry is considered either emotional or physical exhaustion, usually caused by stress at work. It was initially described in the 1950s by Hans Selye as ‘the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it and discouragement in the work setting.’

According to the U.C. Irvine report, burnout is viewed also as a complex of psychological responses (strain) to the particular stress of constant interaction with people who are in need. Differing from other interactional symptoms related to job stress is the effect on others seen as a depersonalization of clients.

One dentist responded,“If dentists dropped managed care and got better fees for their hard work, it would reduce burnout significantly.”

Click on Play to see this short video and hear more of what other dentists had to say about dentist burnout when responding to this survey –

Have you ever experienced work burnout? How did you handle it?