Patient and Dentist Burnout - A Two-Way Relationship

In the past 20 years, there has been much focus on dental professionals' Burnout. Maslach and Jackson define Burnout as ‘a syndrome of emotional exhaustion (EE) and cynicism that occurs frequently among individuals who do “people-work” of some kind’.¹ A recent systematic review into factors contributing to Burnout in dentistry identified 115 papers in its search, of which 33 were of a quality that met inclusion criteria.² Although this, and many other publications, refer to Burnout in dentistry, they focus almost exclusively on the Dentist, the Dental Support Staff and Dental Students but, an equal and very necessary participant in dentistry, the PATIENT, is seldom, if ever, mentioned as a potential victim of dental Burnout.

Clinical dental care is the most invasive healthcare intervention which many patients experience outside of a hospital. Although GPs will carry out intimate personal examinations in a practice setting, these are generally brief and spaced, while complex dental care will often involve a long series of regular, potentially stressful, appointments over a protracted period of time. The increasing complexity of treatment options, high, and often unrealistic, patient expectations, and a focus on treatment rather than care, with less emphasis on diagnosis and planning than on performing procedures, all contribute to the potential development of an emotionally exhausted patient. A focus on ‘selling’ dental treatment and less on delivery of care, where the patient is often referred to as a client or customer, can result in a dissatisfied patient who may feel that he/she has been coerced into extensive and often expensive and irreversible treatment, rather than having been given time to consider all options and given informed consent freely. When this treatment extends over a long period, or leads to complications or disappointing results, there can be cumulative chronic stress which gradually erodes the patient/dentist relationship.