The Prevalence of Abuse Against Dentists in Kuwait

Objectives: The aims of this study were to examine dentists' awareness of the problem of abuse, and to evaluate the prevalence of physical and verbal abuse against dentists in Kuwait. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of dentists from all governorates of Kuwait. A structured questionnaire that evaluated socio-demographic data, perception of stress associated with dentistry, awareness of the issue of abuse against dentists, dentist's definition of physical and verbal abuse, and the prevalence of this problem, was used. Descriptive statistics and univariate analyses were performed. Results: A total of 125 questionnaires were used in the study analysis. Of these, 66.4% were males, 55.2 % were Kuwaiti dentists, and 82.3 % worked in the Ministry of Health. Dentistry was reported to be stressful by 84.8 % of the subjects. A total of 91.1% of the subjects were aware of the issue of abuse against dentists in the dental profession. Moreover, 62 subjects (49.6%) thought that it was a common issue in general, and 72 subjects (57.6%) thought it was a common issue in Kuwait. The majority of the dentists involved in the sample (76.8%) stated that they had experienced one or more forms of physical and/or verbal assaults. Subjects were asked if they would change their profession if they had the chance, and 76.4 % reported they would not.

Conclusion: Abuse against dentists is common in Kuwait, and verbal abuse is the most common form. In addition, although most of the sampled dentists consider dentistry as being stressful, the majority of them do not want to change professions.