Mindful Smiles Hub

As dental professionals we recognise the importance of mental health and wellbeing for our patients. However, we may not always recognise or prioritise our own mental health needs.

The dental profession in Australia is experiencing a mental health crisis, with high levels of psychological distress, burnout and mental illness, as recent research has shown. Although dental practitioners recognise the importance of prevention and early intervention when it comes to oral health advice to their patients, they are not always good at taking the same action for their own mental health and wellbeing.

Although there is an abundance of resources and support available to members of the dental team, it lacks coordination and a central point of focus, and much of it is not specifically targeted to dental practitioners and their teams. Recognising this, the Mindful Smiles Hub was created by a team of passionate and dedicated dental professionals to collate mental health and wellbeing information and resources, contextualise it for the dental team, make it readily available, raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing and work to reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues.

This free online resource launched in December following the publication of new research highlighting the significant mental health burden being experienced by Australian dental practitioners. They appear to be at high risk of burnout, which may impact on their health and wellbeing and their ability to deliver patient care, with one in four practitioners experiencing symptoms consistent with burnout. The study, published in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry, surveyed 1,500 dentists, dental specialists, oral health therapists, dental therapists, dental hygienists and dental prosthetists between October and December 2021.

The findings of this research raise important ‘red flags’ for the dental profession and highlighted the need for action to improve dental practitioners’ mental health and wellbeing.

There is a need for a solutions-oriented call to action across the dental profession to draw attention to burnout and to look at interventions that focus on improving mental health and wellbeing. That is why we developed the Mindful Smiles Hub to be the leading voice for mental health and wellbeing for members of the dental team in Australia.

This is the third publication from this study, with the first paper showing that one in six dental practitioners had recent thoughts of suicide and 5.6% reported ever having thoughts of taking their own life. Dentistry is clearly a stressful profession due to highly demanding technical skills and the imperative of striving for perfection, with high levels of professional stress due to the demands of meeting patients’ expectations, anxious, challenging or dissatisfied patients, time and scheduling pressures, professional isolation from colleagues, fear of litigation, patient complaints, pressures associated with running a small business, and negative public perceptions of dentists.

There is also a stigma associated with mental health conditions, and this seems to be magnified in health professionals. It is vital that we reduce this stigma through advocacy and education to ensure practitioners can seek the appropriate mental health support they need. Improving mental health of dental practitioners is important for their wellbeing, patient outcomes and public health.

The study was undertaken by researchers from the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales and the eviDent Foundation.

The Mindful Smiles Hub team consists of Melanie Aley, Peter Duke, Matt Hopcraft, Roisin McGrath, Dr Cecile le Roux, Nicole Stormon and Annalene Weston.