Psycho-emotional burden on dental medical professionals

Abstract

Introduction. Dental care is one of the most popular types of medical care for the population. In terms of the number of applications, it ranks second after the number of applications to general practitioners. Moreover, in age groups of the population over 35 years old, problems associated with diseases of the teeth and oral cavity come to the fore, the need for orthopedic treatment reaches 60–100%. The dental health of the population has a steady tendency to deteriorate. The data available in the literature indicate that the work of dentists is accompanied by the influence of a number of production factors unfavorable for their health, including visual and emotional stress, forced working posture, irrational lighting, the risk of infection transmission, contact with allergens, toxic substances, noise, vibration, X-ray and laser radiation, and others.The development and organization of preventive measures to create an optimal working environment for dentists of various specialties is a key area of scientific research, since they inherently determine the level of vital activity and working capacity of a doctor. Measures to improve working conditions and protect dental medical workers should be aimed at maintaining occupational hygiene, eliminating adverse professional factors in work, preventing and strengthening their health.Purpose. To assess the psycho-emotional workload of dentists.Materials and methods. As part of the study, a sociological survey was conducted of dentists working in private dental offices in the cities of the Transcarpathian region and the University Dental Clinic of the Uzhhorod National University aged 23 to 58 years (a total of 167 people), of whom: from 23 to 30 years old – 37 people – group 1, from 31 to 40 years old – 43 people – group 2, from 41 to 50 years old – 41 people – group 3, from 51 and older – 46 people – group 4; 167 people (39.8% men and 60.2% women) participated in the study. Almost all dentists worked in their main specialty full-time. 31.3% had work experience from 5 to 10 years, 28.4% – 10–15 years, 23.6% – 15–20 years and 16.7% – over 20 years.For a sociological survey of dentists, a questionnaire was developed and an anonymous survey method was used. A wide range of questions included in the questionnaire allowed us to analyze the health status and subjective assessment of the well-being of medical workers in the process of performing professional activities.Statistical data processing was performed on a personal computer using licensed software for the Windows operating system and the standard Statsoft software package. Inc STATISTICA 6.0 2300 East 14th Street Tulsa, OK 74104 USA. To determine the reliability of the difference in results, the Student’s t-test was used.Results and discussion. Since the work of a dentist is associated with increased psycho-emotional stress, it is quite understandable that dentists have complaints about changes in the psycho-emotional sphere – 37.7%.To perform psychological tests, dentists were divided into two groups: the first – 109 dentists from private dental offices in Uzhhorod and the second – 58 doctors from the University Dental Clinic of the State Higher Educational Institution “UzhNU”. In both groups, a study was conducted on the parameters of personal and reactive anxiety using the “Self-Esteem Scale” developed by Spielberg, and the level of anxiety and depression was determined using the “Depression Scale” developed by Zigmond and Schnait.After statistical processing of the results obtained, it turned out that in both groups the average level of reactive anxiety prevailed (in the first group – 42.7 points, in the second – 34.02 points). That is, dentists are more prone to manifestations of anxiety, fear for the life and health of patients, uncertainty in their actions. Moreover, 25% of all dentists of the first group showed a high level of reactive anxiety, which causes the appearance of an anxiety state in assessing the correctness of decision-making. In addition to comparing the results obtained between dentists and polyclinic doctors, we compared the indicators of the “Self-Esteem Scale” and the “Depression Scale” according to the professional equipment of dentists. For this, the first group of dentists was divided into three subgroups, each with 36 people. The first subgroup included dentists of the therapeutic profile, the second – dentists of the surgical profile, the third – dentists-orthopedics. Dentists of the therapeutic and orthopedic profiles had an average level of reactive anxiety: 40.2 points and 35.2 points, respectively. Dental surgeons showed a high level of reactive anxiety (51.1 points). This suggests that surgical dentists are most prone to fear and anxiety about the competence of their actions when providing dental care.Conclusions. Thus, the psycho-emotional status of dentists by the end of the working day deviates towards increased anxiety and fear for the life and health of patients. No depression was detected in dentists. An increase in fatigue was also detected among dentists of all profiles.The presence of complaints about discomfort in the organ of vision and musculoskeletal system, decreased performance, and changes in psycho-emotional tension were associated by almost all respondents with professional activities and were considered a consequence of unfavorable working conditions.