Mental health
Dangers of stress
Anxiety and addiction to alcohol or drugs can be an issue in the profession due to the stressful nature of the job. It is important to seek help from organisations such as The Dentists’ Health Support Programme, writes Hew Mathewson
D
entistry is a stressful profession. Indeed, P r of es sor Ca ry Cooper’s famous study of stress in the work-
place found that, of 104 jobs, it is one of the 10 most stressful in the UK, alongside fire fighting, police work, social work, mining and medicine. It’s easy see why: here is public-fac- ing job that requires you to remain calm and in control despite carrying out what can be extremely difficult and intimate procedures. Even the routine things, such as giving an injection, cause a surge of adrenaline every time you do it. And it would take a clairvoyant to
arrange for every difficult patient to arrive when you are at your peak. Many dentists will have had that dif- ficult molar endo that comes in at 5.20pm: you’re tired, your blood sugar is low, your partner’s out of town, you’re meant to be picking the kids up from the childminder at 6.15pm – and you can’t find the third canal. It’s hardly surprising, then, to find that as a profession we experience higher than average levels of anxiety, addiction and both attempted and successful suicide. So, while there are a number of reasons why a dentist might come before the General Dental Council with health prob- lems – they could, for example, be seeking a ruling on fitness to practise
30 Scottish Dental magazine
in cases of neurological disease such as Parkinson’s or multiple sclerosis, or blood-borne diseases such as hep- atitis B and HIV – mental health problems and addiction are by far the main ones. In the past, the abused substance
was almost always alcohol, but increasingly drugs are involved too, and it is currently estimated that one in seven practitioners will have a problem with one and/or the other at some point in their career. Everybody has their own way of managing stress. Some knock seven bells out of a squash ball, others take up yoga or meditation; an acquain-
tance of mine even took up weightlifting in his late middle age. But many of us reach for a glass of wine when we get home. Of course, this is not in itself a problem. That comes much further down the road when a patient complains they can smell alcohol on your breath in the morning or you’re caught driving over the limit on the way in to the practice.
In most cases of substance abuse
reported to the GDC, the members of the Fitness to Practise Committee, operating in private session in their ‘health’ mode, will ask for blood tests and a report from an expert psychi- atrist, all in strict confidence. The dentist is likely to be suspended as they decide what to do. While pro- tection of patients is paramount, let me emphasise here that the commit- tee’s role is also to help dentists recover and get back to work. To this end, committee members will be looking for evidence that an alcoholic or a dependent drug user can get their life in order. They might well revoke their fitness to practise, but they might just as well allow a dentist to work under certain provi- sos – such as having to work alongside a colleague or being limit- ed to three days a week. After a time, even this condition might be lifted. Each case is treated on its own mer- its. The point is to help dentists in
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