Prevalence and Effect of Workplace Stress Among Pediatric Dentists

Work-related stress is a pattern of physiological, emotional, cognitive and behavioural reactions to some extremely taxing aspects of work content, work organization and work environment. Certain work situations are too intense and frequent in nature that exceed an individual's coping capabilities and resources to handle them adequately Dentistry is commonly known as a stressful profession among various occupations. Frequent dealing with different types of patients, working in a very small area for long period of time , exposure to toxic substances , all these factors put the dentist under stress. Adding to the previous factors, working to uncooperative children with annoying parents, will put pediatric dentistry on the top of the most stressful branches in dentistry. Stress can affect pedodontists physiologically by increasing their blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate and excessive sweating which in turn may increase the risk of hypertension and breathing problems.