The Relation Between Burnout and Personality Traits in Dentists Working in Southern Kerman

Dentistry has been recognized as one of the most stressful occupations. Job stress and burnout are more common in dentists than in other people engaging in other occupations. This study aimed to investigate the relation between burnout and personality traits in dentists working in the southern cities of Kerman Province. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 42 dentists working in the southern cities of Kerman Province. The participants were selected through the census method. The data were collected via a demographic information questionnaire, the 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory to measure emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment, and the 60-item NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-FFI) to assess neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS software (version 21) using independent samples t-test, ANOVA, and linear regression analysis at a significance level of 0.05. The participants’ mean age, years of graduation, and years of working as a dentist were 41.05±9.45, 12.19±8.07, and 12.64±8.26 years, respectively. It was also shown that 90.5% of the dentists suffered from severe emotional exhaustion, 92.9% had severe depersonalization, and 28.6% had severe lack of personal accomplishment. Furthermore, the highest and lowest scores were related to conscientiousness and neuroticism as two personality traits. Burnout had a significant correlation with all subscales of personality traits except extraversion. The dentists working in the southern cities of Kerman Province reported high levels of burnout. Therefore, it is essential to prevent and treat burnout and its possible consequences among dentists.