CONTINUED Studying Trends in Mental Health in Dentistry and Other Professions A research team, called the Healthy Professional Worker Partnership, has been investigating mental health, leaves of absence and return to work among people from seven professions in Canada, including dentistry. “When you are the practice leader, it’s really hard to take a break, because your team also goes down with you. It’s hard to get away. You know, it’s not so easy,” one dentist told the team of researchers when asked why they didn’t go on leave when suffering from mental health challenges. “The pandemic happened while we were collecting data,” says Dr. Ivy Bourgeault, University of Ottawa professor and research chair in Gender, Diversity and Professions and director of the partnership. “And of course it was a significant factor for health care workers, including dentists. We saw a large increase in those experiencing burnout.” In some preliminary findings, the researchers found that compared to other professional groups, dentists were the least likely to report having mental health issues, such as burnout. The average across all professions in the study, which includes medicine, academia, and nursing, was 58%, while 44% of dentists reported such issues. “It’s possible that some dentists are reluctant to talk about their own mental health issues, because of stigma,” says Dr. Tracey Adams, co-investigator on the dentistry team and a professor at Western University. “There might be a fear that if word gets out, it may affect their practice.” “Despite the fact that it is so common, there is still stigma around mental illness in dentistry,” says Dr. Mario Brondani, dentistry lead investigator and professor in the faculty of dentistry at the University of British Columbia. “Indeed, the stigma may be why there has been so little research into mental health and dentistry.” Among dentists who reported experiencing mental health issues, 54% made changes at their place of work, most commonly by reducing workload, taking sick days, and seeking medical help. Though 28% of these dentists considered taking a leave of absence, only 13% took one. When dentists did take a leave of absence, just over half returned to work, while 41% left the profession. “Other professions were far more likely to take a leave of absence in the first place,” says Dr. Bourgeault. “And when they did, they were more likely to come back to work afterward. In dentistry, there are a lot of barriers to taking a leave of absence and, once a dentist takes one, it is harder to come back than in other professions. Or those people were so exhausted, they just could not “There was a striking increase in distress and burnout during COVID compared to before,” Dr. Bourgeault says. Before the pandemic, dentists said their mental health was very good, scoring an average of 3.68 on a scale of 4.0. During the pandemic, dentists reported that their mental health was good, falling to an average of 2.92 on the scale. The number of dentists who reported one or more symptoms of burnout increased. “We also found that female dentists reported more burnout than their male colleagues.” Stress often comes from both work and other sources; research into the pandemic has shown that women had increased family obligations compared to men, related to childcare. Ultimately, the research teamplans to create interventions and tools to promote better mental health and provide support to dentists that addresses the specific problems facing dentists. “The employment model for dentistry is different from many other health care professions in Canada, so dentists experience stress related to managing their practices and the debt they take on to own and run them,” says Dr. Bourgeault. “For example, dentists say that difficulty finding locums to keep the practice running with a source of income while on leave prevents them from being able to properly take care of their mental health. So an accessible pool of locums would be an important mental health support for dentists.” “Dental schools are a great place for early intervention,” says Dr. Brondani. “Many dental schools are already talking about mental health. If the stressors that cause burnout for dentists are related to their business model, we should talk about mental health strategies related to managing a practice.” return to the dental office.” When asked why dentists chose not to take a leave, the data shows that most often they didn’t feel that their mental health issues were severe enough to warrant the resulting impact on patients and staff, along with financial losses. In dentistry, there are a lot of barriers to taking a leave of absence and, once a dentist takes one, it is harder to come back than in other professions. 22 | 2023 | Issue 2 Issues and People
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