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Hello, I’m Dr. Joseph Stewart
Dental health is my profession but mental health is my passion. I’ve practiced general dentistry for over forty-five years graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1962. I’ve promoted mental health for over twenty-three years certified by the Institutes for Rational Emotive Therapy, New York, in 1984. So I can speak to you from lived experiences about the emotional hazards of the dental professional. I’ve been saddened over the years when ever I see a classmate and colleague succumb to the ravages of various mental illnesses often losing their physical health, professional practices, spouses and families and even their own lives. These emotional hazards for the dental professional are not adequately addressed in the dental education system or in the dental culture. These hazards put the dental professional at risk for the incident and prevalence of depression, chemical dependency, marital disharmony, violation of sexual boundaries with staff, professional burnout and attempted suicide. Burnout literature consistently use dentists as sample population at high risk for stress syndromes.
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