The mental health of the dental profession should be protected

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  Posted by: Dental Design      10th May 2021

Denplan carried out a survey with member dentists to delve deeper into the issues affecting the dental profession after this turbulent year. Following a roundtable discussion in February, a white paper with key recommendations on how the Government should support our industry has now been published. Mental health and wellbeing is one of the main topics raised

Never has our profession been under more pressure. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed – and in many cases exacerbated – the issues facing mixed and private dental practices across the UK.

I’ve been working with various dental colleagues to explore the impact of COVID-19 on our profession. Our recent Denplan member survey raised a variety of issues facing the profession including concerns about financial stability, capacity to meet demand, and professional development and morale.

Poor mental health and wellbeing has long been an ongoing issue in the dental sector and we are very concerned that it has been deteriorating across the profession for a number of years. Mental health formed a large part of our most recent roundtable discussions that I chaired alongside industry leaders in February.  As a result of these discussions and research, Denplan has produced a white paper with 14 recommendations for the dental sector, which we urge policymakers to implement as soon as is practically possible.

Protecting our mental health by safeguarding our profession and ensuring the workforce is resilient, supported and engaged is a huge part of this work.

Mental health impact status quo

Our membership survey showed 35 per cent selected mental health and wellbeing challenges caused by managing a practice during COVID-19 as the challenge they are most concerned about in the next 12 months. Looking ahead, 42 per cent saw mental health and wellbeing as the most significant challenges facing the dental sector in the coming year (non-COVID related)[1].

This is something that needs to be addressed urgently, not only because stress and anxiety are harmful to dental professionals themselves, but also because such issues might impact negatively on patient outcomes.

Over the past few years the BDA has also carried out various qualitative research studies to understand more about mental health issues within the profession. In 2017, the association identified feelings of stress, experiences of burnout, and anxiety as the top three welfare issues facing dentists, which were caused by the top three following factors: their working conditions and environment, the fact that dentists normally work alone, and the pressure of meeting tough NHS and UDA targets.[2]

Our Denplan members report similar concerns and, indeed, the pressure on dental professionals is immense. During lockdown we supported Denplan members and their practice teams by giving them access to our GP and employee assistance programme providing vital support during the crisis that took a real toll on mental health.

Historically dental teams work very long hours, often seeing patients for early morning, late evening and weekend appointments. They also usually work in isolated conditions in single rooms, and so it can be a lonely profession. All of which contribute to the strain on mental health and wellbeing.

COVID-19 has worsened mental health

Over the last year practice teams have worked hard to meet patient care needs and carry out treatments under challenging circumstances. However, recent events and difficult pandemic working conditions have resulted in mental health strains and deteriorating morale across dental teams, exacerbating existing pressures on dentists and their dental teams.

As a result of the pandemic dental practices were forced to close for many months last year and are still operating at a reduced capacity, which has had significant financial consequences for dentists and caused them stress about how to meet the backlog. Compounding these worries are the additional restrictions and regulations that have been imposed on the industry as a result of the virus, which dental professionals now have to navigate amid uncertainty. Both have placed additional stress onto dentists and caused a higher rate of burnout.

A survey of dental practitioners carried out by Dental Protection last year found that, since the start of the pandemic, 45% of UK dentists feel their mental wellbeing has deteriorated, while almost half feel pessimistic about the future (48%).[3]

The research found that dental professionals said the main factor affecting their mental wellbeing was the health of their family and friends, followed by financial worries, and then adapting to new policies and guidance. Worryingly, a third (33%) of dentists also said they had experienced verbal or physical abuse from patients or patients’ relatives – largely due to not being able to offer an appointment soon enough.[4]

Since March last year, the BDA has also reported that they have experienced a surge in dentists accessing their Health Assured support service, with the majority citing anxiety, employment, work-related stress, low mood and work-related demands as their reasons for getting in touch.[5]

While many practices have provided good support and mentoring throughout the pandemic, there remain some, particularly in the cases of associates and dental nurses, who are feeling the pressures of the pandemic environment acutely.

Many of these team members were furloughed towards the beginning of the pandemic, resulting in a loss of income and increased anxiety about the future. For many of those who weren’t furloughed, the risk they faced of contracting COVID-19 from patients caused concern and anxiety.

Therefore, there’s an urgent need for policymakers to work with the sector to ensure that the whole dental workforce is resilient, supported and engaged.

The next generation

While the concerns that we have outlined above affect current dentists, Denplan’s white paper also sets out a further set of issues that are affecting the wellbeing of the next generation of dentists.

Dental students typically treat over 400,000 volunteer patients each year but, as a result of the pandemic, were unable to treat patients several months over the last year. Current students at dental schools have therefore lost a considerable amount of clinical time and the crucial opportunity to build their clinical experience of a range of more complex procedures.

Consequently, this is likely to impact on their understanding of and confidence in dentistry and could result in them feeling disillusioned and frustrated with the profession.

 

 

 

 

 

Optimism does lie ahead

With all this in mind, there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the future. Dentists are hard-working dedicated professionals, who want the best for their patients. They are embracing technology and they want to learn new skills and undertake training to continue to develop.

Furthermore, the vast majority of our member dentists (88%) we surveyed said that they do find clinical dentistry rewarding, with only 6% saying that they don’t.[6]

The onus should therefore be on policymakers to properly support dental professionals to do their jobs and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

The Government must work with our sector to safeguard the profession and ensure the workforce is resilient, supported and engaged. This must include increasing the numbers of placements, boosting financial support for dental students, and strengthening training and professional development that is available to dentists throughout their career.

To read Denplan’s White Paper visit: https://www.denplan.co.uk/news/dentists-blog/denplan-white-paper.

References:

[1] Denplan member dentist survey, fieldwork carried out 1^st-20^th October 2020, 384 members surveyed.

[2] BDA, ‘The Mental Health and Well-being of UK Dentists: A Qualitative Study’, Aug 2017

[3] Dental Protection, ‘Covid-19: Half of UK dentists feel pessimistic about the future’, Nov 2020

[4] Ibid

[5] BDA, ‘The dental profession’s mental health crisis’, Sep 2020

[6] Denplan member dentist survey, fieldwork carried out 1^st-20^th October 2020, 384 members surveyed.

About the Author: Catherine Rutland, Clinical Director of Denplan, part of Simplyhealth.

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