Occupational stress amongst general practice dentists

This study assessed the mental well‐being and job satisfaction of a random sample of 484 dentists in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was found that male dentists showed lower levels of well‐being than the normative population. Using multiple regression and LISREL, it was found that ‘time and scheduling demands’ and ‘negative patient perceptions’ were consistent predictors of mental ill‐health across both male and female dentists. While there was also a significant relationship between these factors and job satisfaction, the amount of variance explained was small. In addition, for male dentists, Type A coronary‐prone behaviour was also a strong predictor. These results are discussed in detail.