[Predictive psychophysiological stress symptoms in dentists].

Background: Dentistry has been identified as one of the most stressful occupations in which a dentist's mental and/or physical health may be affected. The objective of this study was to identify chronic psychophysiological stress symptoms in relation with the presence of high stress levels perceived in dentists at a Social Security institution in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Methods: The design was cross-sectional and analytical by means of a 2011 census consisting of 87 dentists. The Stress Profile and the Stress Symptom Inventory were applied and the analysis was performed with multiple regression.

Results: The perceived stress levels were: high (67.8 %), medium (29.9 %) and low (2.3 %). The most frequent psychophysiological symptom of perceived high level of stress was fatigue with 51 %, and the female gender was the most affected. The existence of a meaningful association was shown between the chronic psychophysiological stress symptoms of insomnia, fatigue and the female gender, and perceived high level stress.

Conclusions: Early identification of the symptoms of chronic stress in dentists would favor the implementation of appropriate preventive programs to care for their health and work place security.