title: Age differences in the stress patterns of dentists.
abstract: The present study is a comparison of the stress patterns of older and younger dentists in private practice. Dentists responded to a questionnaire which sought to elicit their responses to a number of situations and events that typically occur in their professional lives. These included financial difficulties, patient-management problems, time issues and uncertainty about their professional status. The groups compared were dentists over 54 years (n = 36) with dentists below the age of 35 years (n = 41), where both the frequency and intensity of their responses were measured. The findings suggested that overall, the older dentists are less stressed than their younger counterparts. Some issues, those concerned with finance and patient-management, appear to affect both groups more or less equally, which suggests that these issues are of global, rather than specific concern. From a theoretical point of view, the findings tend to contradict the generally-held belief that getting older is automatically accompanied by degeneration and problems of adaptation to life changes. On the contrary, seemingly favourable adaptation and low levels of stress are evident in most of the older respondents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Dentistry, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Brand
authors.forename: B E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Chalmers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003815:Dentists; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological