Jubei0766,
Hi, to answer your question regarding the dental suicide statistic and for all you other pre-dents and dents, I actually did a research study on this because I really wanted to know if this was factual information. My research study was conducted in response to Doctor_Joyce_Brutha who posted a while back on this subject. He/she felt that the statistic was true--I on the contrary felt that it was not. Below are my results that present clear and substantial evidence on this matter. Soo, if you ever get told, "Why are you going into dentistry--don't you know they have a high tendency to commit suicide," or something to this effect, please refer those ignorant people to this post...
Below is my response post:
Doctor_Joyce_Brutha,
Now to finally respond to your dental suicide allegation in which you stated that "thousands commit suicide in the dental profession every year." As I initially asked in my follow-up post, I wanted you to validate your allegation which you have not. To begin my argument, I will first reply to the articles you posted, then I will complete my argument with evidence from many other articles I have read regarding the dental suicide phenomenon. But before I begin, I want to report an interesting finding I made while conducting the dental suicide search. There are way more studies conducted on the number of suicides by physicians than there are on dentists, so I really wonder why dentists have been known to commit suicide much more than physicians.
Now to begin--you tried to validate your statement that "thousands commit suicide in the dental profession ever year" with an article from Harvard School of Public Health entitled, "Suicide among Swedish Dentists." First of all, I want to point out that this article, even though it was published in 1987, was a study conducted on the suicide of dentists from 1961-1970 in Sweden. In case you have been living in a time warp, we are in the 21st century forty years after this study was initially conducted. Also, I would guess that the vast majority of the people who visit SDN are living in the U.S.A. So, when I asked you to validate your initial allegation that thousands of dentists commit suicide every year, it was under the understanding that we are not talking about the dental suicide statistic during the Stone Age nor are we talking about the dental suicide statistic on some ant hill in Africa. My point is that one cannot reasonably nor substantially conclude that claims made about dentists forty years ago and in a country other than the U.S. have any bearing about the quality of life and the suicide rate among dentists in our current society in the U.S. But, since you brought up the Swedish article, I'll comment on it since I have read it in its entirety.
First of all, the study concluded that there was NO INCREASE in the suicide rate of Swedish dentists compared to the general Swedish population. Yes, that is correct--go read the article yourself. This means that if you were to look at the suicide rate of dentists as a whole, they commit suicide no more than the general population does. The ONLY thing the report claimed is that if you were to compare the suicide rate of dentists with other occupations including a priest, teacher, librarian, architect, accountant, pilot, university professor, and a few others, there was no elevation in the suicide rate of female dentists, only male dentists AND PHYSICIANS-yes, physicians. I mean what kind of conclusion is that? Dentists have a higher suicide rate compared to a priest and a librarian, etc. etc. etc.--give me a break. Dr. Joyce Brutha, before you start making sweeping generalizations that dentists commit suicide by the thousands each year, why don't you get the scientific articles you posted and read exactly what findings they are reporting. The only thing I found interesting about this Swedish report was that it stated that there is evidence supporting psychoorganic consequences as a result of mercury exposure by dentists and physicians. This mercury exposure is a likely cause of suicidal tendencies. However, as far as I know dentists haven't used mercury for years in their dental procedures hence, the validity of this study for dentistry today in my opinion carries no weight.
Your next report entitled, "Stress and coping amongst South African dentists in private practice," AGAIN carries no merit for any sort of strong relationship between a high suicide rate vs. dentists. This article only investigated stress and coping and did not validate any claim regarding the number of dentists who commit suicide. The article basically concluded that dentists experience a high amount of stress, but it didn't compare dentists with any other occupation nor did it compare their stress level with the general population. Also, did you even see where the research scientists conducted their study?-SOUTH AFRICA!! What does South Africa have to do with the social/political/economic situation in the U.S. among dentists. In South Africa, there is political unrest, mass economic hardships, social suffering, high crime rate, violence, and the list goes on. I mean what person WOULDN'T undergo a high amount of stress under those conditions. I bet if the study expanded into other occupations in South Africa including physicians, lawyers, policemen, even the local teacher or librarian, the stress levels would also be high, so this article can be flushed down the toilet in my opinion since 1) it doesn't validate ANY sort of suicide statistic among dentists and 2) is it not representative of what goes on here among U.S. dentists.
Next, the article you told me to read entitled, "Suicide statistics of dentists in Iowa, 1968 to 1980," reported that the suicide rate of dentists in Iowa from 1968-1980 was nearly IDENTICAL as that for the general population! So again, you are WRONG. That means if you were to look at the suicide rate of dentists vs. the general population, they would be nearly equal--so no sweeping judgments can be made regarding dentists committing suicide by the thousands every year as you initially claimed. The only interesting fact the study reported was that it went on to say that among white-collar occupations, physicians, lawyers, and dentists IN IOWA have an elevated suicide rate, but again, if you are to look at the population on the whole, dentists are virtually right in the average among the general population for committing suicide. In my opinion this article is bogus as a representation of what goes on in dentistry on a mass level because this article is ONLY representative of a small population in Iowa. Therefore, one cannot conclusively state that this is a valid report for nor is it representative of what goes on in dentistry throughout the United States. ALSO, the report was done over 30 years ago! What does that have to do with the year 2001??
Next, I conducted a Medline search and ran across other articles regarding the mortality rate and suicide rate of dentists and do you know what?-- there were only a handful of articles and NONE of the articles reported an elevated overall suicide rate for U.S. dentists?NONE. IN FACT, a report entitled, ?The Suicidal Professions,? by Cyril B. Kanterman reported that there are ?no firm statistics on dentist mortality by suicide.? In another study entitled, ?The Quality of Life of a Dentist,? it states, ?Indicators of excess stress among dentists, such as suicide, divorce, alcoholism, or drug abuse, are not supported by data.? Sooo, the very few reports that were done on the suicide rate among dentists carried very little weight because they were isolated studies and not representative of dentists on the whole nor were they studies carried out in such a way that universal conclusions could be drawn. One cannot draw any conclusions based on isolated independent research projects that study a small population, especially a population outside of the U.S. and make sweeping judgments based on findings that are not substantial on a universal level. Also, on a side note, interestingly, this same study by the above author, Cyril B. Kanteman, reported that even though there were no firm statistics on dentists mortality by suicide, there is MORE information available concerning suicide among physicians! A study reported by the National Institute of Mental Health revealed that more M.D.s died by their own hands than from all other ?unnatural? causes combined (automobile accidents, plane crashes, drownings, and homicide). So my question is WHY is the focus of suicide more directed at dentists than PHYSICIANS? Go on medline and conduct a search and you?ll find out that there are much more reports on physician suicides than there are on dental suicides?just an interesting twist to your initial allegation, Doctor_Joyce_Brutha, that "dentists commit suicide by the thousands each year."
Racerdude
P.S. Oh yeah, I researched the contrary viewpoint regarding the dental profession?overall high levels of JOB SATISFACTION among U.S. dentists--and there were many reports regarding a high quality of life and a low mortality rate among U.S. dentists.
