Samar Abou Jaoude, Maha H. Daou* and Sara Khazaka
Background: Dentists face numerous daily pressure that can lead to stress, as are most people who work in the health care field.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of stress among a sample of Lebanese dentists to understand their probable causes and propose solutions to reduce their occurrence.
Material and methods: A total of 314 Lebanese dentists, who practiced different specialties of dentistry, after giving verbal consent, completed an anonymous questionnaire that focused on occupational health problem. This study was approved by the ethics committee of Saint-Joseph University (USJ) of Beirut, Lebanon. The statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software for Windows. The alpha error was set to 0.05.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 39.2 (± 11.66) years (58.6% male). The results showed that 90.8% (n=285) were satisfied with their work, 23.2% (n=73) had sleep disorders, 21.3% (n=67) of Lebanese dentists have relationship problems with dental technician, 14% (n=44) Lebanese dentists have misunderstanding with the assistant, 42.7% (n=134) had concerns related to work accident, 5.7% (n=18) are dealing with aggressive patient, 51.9% (n=163) had payment issue, 3.8% (n=12) have unsatisfied patients, 24.8% (n=78) have anxious patients while 14% (n=44) had financial concerns.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate a potential stress of Lebanese dentists, for that we must encourage them to practice sport, cultural and outdoor activities, improve their quality of sleep. In addition, preventive programs should be initiated to help professionals to cope with their professional duties without hazardous effects on their mental health.
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