Study on Personality Types of Dentists in different Disciplines of Dentistry.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the most common personality type among dentists in seven selected clinical dentistry specialties using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and to compare between these different types of personalities.

Materials And Methods: A survey containing the MBTI and demographic and practice questions was used to assess the personality styles of 243 dental specialists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The survey results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: The results of the MBTI for 243 specialist dentists revealed, generally, a higher percentage of scoring for introversion (I) with an average of 65% than extroversion (E). The study identified 10 common personality types among these specialists: ISTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, ISTP, INFP, INTP, ENFP, ENTP, ENFJ, and ENTJ (extraversion-introversion (E-I), sensing-intuition (S-N), thinking-feeling (T-F), and judging-perception (J-P)). The dominant personality type in all seven clinical specialties in dentistry was ISTJ, with an average of 54%.

Conclusion: The personality types showed variation among the seven clinical dentistry specialties. However, among these seven clinician's specialties in dentistry, more than 50% of the individuals shared one common type of personality (ISTJ).

Clinical Significance: The identification of the personality type might help in their association with coworkers, students, and patients as well as knowing the individual preferences toward different specialties in dentistry.