Dentists & Suicide

When I tell people that I'm studying to become a dentist, one of three things happens.

1. They say, 'I could never do that' (grossness factor, etc.)
2. They think it's cool and tell me about a friend or uncle who loves being a dentist
3. They say, 'Oh. Dentists commit suicide more than any other profession. Better watch out!'

To the grossness people, I usually blow it off and am glad that there's less competition in the world, but I don't really find much gross about it. To the related, positive people, I have a good conversation about why their friend or relative likes it so much. And to the suicide-reminders, I usually throw back some answer like, 'that was in the 60's' or 'we don't use the same chemicals anymore.'

That was always kind of a cop out, because I never knew that much about it. So I decided to research the subject. It turns out, suicide has been underreported throughout history for several reasons: it is frowned on in many cultures, occasionally suicide cannot be confirmed as cause of death, and many suicides from poorer classes are left unreported. Here's what I discovered:

Much of this rumor mill comes from early data (like, even back to the 1930's) or from a 60 Minutes 30 years ago. In reality, the early 70's show that the dentist suicide rate was a half a percentage point higher than the average for white males, but that it was significantly less than that of physicians. But this data is, in and of itself, skewed, because the profession has evolved so much. Dentists currently are less 'hated' than they were 40 years ago, and have less problems with malpractice and insurance than most physicians do. One report listed 10 dental suicides per 100,000 population per year in NC, which came to the smallest suicide average of all medical professions. Current figures are difficult to assemble, but signs point to dental suicides being lower than they were 20 years ago.

So, is being a dentist stressful? Yes, it can be. Do dentists struggle to deal with that stress? They do. The American Dental Association has made strides to help individuals deal with incurred stress, burnout, and time management to protect its members. That's part of it. More so, it's important to do something you like and try to like the thing you do. I'm lucky in that I feel like I'm in that category now.

http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/full/132/6/786
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010420.html
Alexander, R. 2001. Stress-related suicide by dentists and other health care workers: Fact or folklore. JADA, Vol 132, No 6, 786-794.