Dental hygiene and dental therapy students’ perception of stress and wellbeing during their undergraduate education at one university in the United Kingdom

Aim: To explore dental hygiene and dental therapy students’ perception of stress and wellbeing during their undergraduate education.

Method: An online questionnaire was distributed to all second and third-year dental hygiene and dental therapy students (n=129) at the University of Portsmouth Dental Academy (UPDA) during winter 2021. Data on students’ perception of levels of environmental stress and psychological wellbeing were collected. Questionnaires were completed via Google Forms, a form of survey administration software that is included as part of webbased Google Docs.

Results: Participants reported principal stressors being: fear of failing the course or year; fear of not being able to ‘catch up’ if falling behind in their studies; and passing examinations. Both groups of students scored mild to normal range levels of psychological stress, which may be a reflection of the students’ resilience and positive psychological wellbeing.

Conclusion: The study found similar results to previous research that examined similar groups in the same institution. Remarkably, these results have not significantly changed over time, despite the current data being captured from students studying during a time of global pandemic. This is further evidence to support previous findings which indicate that dental hygiene and dental therapy students may draw on high levels of positive psychological wellbeing that may help to mitigate stress and enhance resilience.