Mental health and wellbeing across career stages
Dentistry is a stressful profession, with stressors including time and scheduling pressures, striving for perfection, fear of litigation, anxious patients, demanding and unrealistic patient expectations (particularly meeting aesthetic needs), business pressures, staffing problems, regulatory demands and negative perceptions of the dental profession. It can also be an isolating profession despite there often being a large number of staff in the workplace.
Dental practitioners face challenges across their career that may contribute to stress and mental illness. Although many of these may not be unique to dental practice, the cumulative effect of these is likely to be driving the mental health challenges facing the profession.
International Dental Graduates
Expensive and challenging assessment and examination process
Finding employment
Understanding the culture of Australia dental practice
Specialists-in-Training
High student fees
Reduced income during study
Competitive entry and time demands of study
Retirement
Loss of identity after retiring
Students
High entry scores
Competitive education
Clinical placements
High fees (up to $75,000 per year)
Recent Graduates
Challenges of transitioning to practice
Steep learning curve over the first few years
Lack of mentoring
Repaying student debt
Building a patient base
Mid-career Practitioners
Practice ownership
Regulation and compliance
Patient complaints/notifications
Research has shown a high burden of mental health issues across the life course for dental practitioners. Often people may think – ‘I only need to get past this stage, and then I will be fine’ – and use this to avoid seeking professional support. It’s important to recognise that there will be many challenges along the way, highlighting the importance of seeking professional help and guidance.
So no matter what stage of your career you are at, remember that it is important to always prioritise your own mental health and wellbeing.
Read more in our Mental health of the Australian dental profession: Snapshot 2023 report.