Volume 2(1): 1000112 J Interdiscipl Med Dent Sci ISSN: 2376-032X JIMDS, an open access journal Research Article Open Access Pozos-Radillo et al., J Interdiscipl Med Dent Sci 2014, 2:1 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2376-032X.1000112 Research Article Open Access Interdisciplinary Medicine and Dental Science *Corresponding author: Blanca Elizabeth Pozos Radillo, Research Professor, Public Health Department, University Center for Health Sciences, University of Guadalajara, Calle Paseo de los Virreyes 706 A-19, Colonia Virreyes Residencial, Zapopan, Jalisco, C.P. 45110, Mexico, Tel: + 52 (33) 3968 7537; E-mail: litaemex@yahoo.com.mx Received January 06, 2014; Accepted January 28, 2014; Published January 30, 2014 Citation: Pozos-Radillo BE, Preciado-Serrano L, Plascencia A, Delgado D, Zaragoza S (2014) Major Stress Symptoms in Dentists at a Social Security Institution in Guadalajara, Mexico. J Interdiscipl Med Dent Sci 2: 112. doi: 10.4172/2376-032X.1000112 Copyright: © 2014 Pozos-Radillo BE, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited Abstract During dental practice, the professional inds him or herself exposed to stress and to diverse conditions posing a mental or physical health risk. The purpose of this study was to identify the most frequent symptoms of chronic stress in dentists. All dentists (87) that worked during the year 2011 at a Social Security institution were surveyed using the Stress Symptom Inventory (SSI) to record both physical and psychological symptoms. The results showed that the perception of physical symptoms, such as strong heartbeats, dry mouth, fatigue, headaches, frequent urge to urinate, neck and shoulder pain as well as the psychological symptomatology of anxiety, urge to eat at all times, rage attacks, insomnia, accident proneness and impaired concentration were factors of high-level chronic stress in dentists working at the Social Security institution. Timely identiication of chronic stress in dentists may favor the implementation of timely prevention programs for their healthcare and work security. Major Stress Symptoms in Dentists at a Social Security Institution in Guadalajara, Mexico Blanca Elizabeth Pozos-Radillo 1 *, Lourdes Preciado-Serrano 2 , Ana Plascencia 1 , Diemen Delgado 2 and Susana Zaragoza 1 1 Public Health Department, University Center for Health Sciences, University of Guadalajara, Calle Paseo de los Virreyes 706 A-19, Colonia Virreyes Residencial, Zapopan, Jalisco, C.P. 45110, Mexico 2 Rio Verde Clinic, Los Andes, Chile Keywords: Dentists; Stress; Stress symptoms Introduction During dental practice, the professional inds him or herself exposed to diferent conditions posing a risk of stress symptomatology and or impacting his or her health. Stress is considered to be a person’s physiological reaction where several defense mechanisms come into play to cope with a situation perceived as threatening or that goes beyond his or her adaptive resources [1]. Stress not only afects a dentist’s physical and/or mental health; it can also be related aversely to the quality of oral healthcare services. Furthermore, dentists may also manifest symptomatology indicative of sufering from severe stress related to work activities, life styles or personality, and social and environmental conditions exposing them to potentially dangerous diseases [2]. Stress surveys mention that Mexico is deemed to be one of the countries with the highest stress levels and that the female gender is afected the most [3-5]. Studies made of professionals suggest that dentistry work can trigger stress and be harmful to one’s long-term health and wellbeing due to the mentally and physically challenging nature of the profession. he most common symptoms reported are tiredness, anxiety, bruxism, headaches and depression [6,7]. herefore, the purpose of this study is to identify chronic stress symptoms in dentists at a Social Security institution in Guadalajara, Mexico by means of the Stress Symptom Inventory (SSI). Material and Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was made during the year 2011. A total of 87 professional dentists working at a Social Security institution in Guadalajara, Mexico were surveyed by census. he information was given voluntarily and under a condition of informed consent as provided by the General Health Law in efect in Mexico as it applies to research. he project observed the 2008 Declaration of Helsinki concerning informant conidentiality. Instrument Stress symptom inventory (SSI): he adaptation for Mexico of a questionnaire drated and validated by Lipp and Guevara in 1994 has a Cronbach’s alpha reliability of 80 [8]. he questionnaire is comprised of a list of 41 characteristic stress symptoms, with answers on a scale of one to six points (1=never and 6=always) where the participant speciies his or her feelings over the past six months. he frequency of each symptom is classiied according to the points selected: high (5 or 6), medium (3 or 4) and low (1 or 2). In order to evaluate chronic stress the sum total of points indicated in the list of symptoms was considered, with an average cutof point and standard deviation (SD). hree levels were detected: high for those who had two or three SD above the average, medium for those between one SD above or below the average, and low for those who had two or three SD below the average [5]. Data analysis he Odds Ratio (OR) was estimated with a 95% conidence interval and p<.05 signiicance to determine the association of the symptoms reported over the past six months with high-level chronic stress. he data were cross tabulated and processed with the SPSS (IBM® SPSS® Statistics 20, USA 1989-2011) statistics package under the university’s license. Results 87 dentists participated in this study of whom 51 (58.6%) were women and 36 (41.4%) were men. he descriptive analysis mainly identiied the following physical or