Perceived stress in dental practice.

Stress is a normal physiological response to events that make us feel threatened, or upset our balance in some way. In medicine, it is known that stress, as an emotional state, can be a trigger for many psychosomatic disorders. Work stress and burnout are considered to be serious professional risks in dentistry. The dentist should be aware of these stressors and attempt to manage them in order to avoid becoming occupationally dissatisfied. On the other hand, the other common characteristic of modern life is a growing burden of different chronic diseases. Periodontal disease is one of the two most important oral diseases contributing to the global burden of chronic disease. The aim of this study was to assess the perceived stress in patients with periodontal pathologies, and to compare it with the stress in doctors-dentists and students of dentistry as future professionals. Our study confirmed the presence of significant stress in all three groups of examinees (patients, doctors, and students). Surprisingly, the obtained PSQ scores are similar in the examined groups. In addition, no differences between perceived stress in males and females have been found. There is a minimal positive correlation between age and obtained scores. However, stress must be evaluated as a risk factor both for professionals or for chronic dental patients and some response measures must be undertaken.