The Impact of Chronic Occupational Exposure to Pain on Dentists’ Mental Health
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This study aimed to explore the psychological impact of chronic occupational exposure to patient pain on dentists’ mental health. This qualitative study employed a phenomenological research design to investigate dentists’ lived experiences related to chronic exposure to patient pain. A total of 27 dentists from diverse countries were recruited through online announcements, and data were collected via semi-structured video call interviews. Theoretical saturation determined the sample size, ensuring a comprehensive exploration of recurring themes. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis, and NVivo software facilitated the coding and identification of patterns related to emotional strain, coping strategies, and professional challenges. The results indicated that chronic exposure to patient pain led to significant emotional exhaustion, burnout, and compassion fatigue, with many participants reporting psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches, sleep disturbances, and muscle tension. The stigma surrounding mental health in the dental profession contributed to reluctance in seeking psychological support. Workplace coping mechanisms, including peer support, mindfulness, and professional counseling, emerged as protective factors against burnout, although access to such resources varied. Ethical dilemmas, particularly in pain management and fear of malpractice litigation, further exacerbated psychological distress. Participants described struggling to balance empathy with professional detachment, leading to moral distress and emotional suppression in their clinical practice. Chronic occupational exposure to patient pain has profound psychological implications for dentists, increasing their risk of emotional exhaustion and professional burnout. Addressing mental health challenges in dentistry requires institutional changes, including improved access to mental health resources, peer support programs, and stress management training. Recognizing the emotional toll of pain management in dental practice is essential for sustaining the well-being of practitioners and ensuring high-quality patient care.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.007 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.005 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".