In the first in a series of six articles, David Ward takes a deep dive into the root of unhappiness in the profession

Two gifted, handsome and dedicated dentists who qualified alongside me in 1986 have been lost to suicide. There has always been anecdotal evidence that dentistry was a career with high

stress and subsequent high suicide rates. This usually involves dentists who get into financial difficulties or relationship problems and end up with no apparent way out. Research carried

out by the British Dental Association in 2019 shows dentistry is linked to high stress levels and burnout, with one in six dentists admitting seriously considering suicide and a total of 77