We have all see these articles come across social media, “Top 10 Highest Paying Jobs Without a Degree”, “Top 25 Highest Paying Jobs For People That Don’t Want to Sit At A Desk”, or in this case Business Insider’s “The 27 Jobs That Are Most Damaging To Your Health”. For some reason I am drawn to these articles and can’t help click on the link to see if my own profession some how ranks on the list. Truth be told, I don’t put a lot weight into these surveys or rankings because I don’t think they are accurate of all professions, but that being said, I was a little shocked to see Dentists rank #1 in Business Insider’s “The 27 Jobs That Are Most Damaging To Your Health”. I have read through the article and understand how the rankings were made, but I wanted to give perhaps a little more insight on why Dentist might be the #1 job most damaging to your health.

Dentists are not unlike most medical professionals, we deal with bacteria, pathogens, microbes, germs on a daily or hourly basis. We are constantly sticking our hands in one of the most contaminated areas of the body, the mouth. RDHMag.com reports that the human mouth has up to 20 billion microbes or 100 billion microbes in people that have poor oral hygiene. As dental professionals, which include dentists, dental hygienist, and dental assistants, we are constantly fighting these microbes, whether it is cleaning teeth, fixing cavities or teaching people proper oral hygiene. Yes, we take precautions, we wear masks, gloves, eye protections and gowns, but these are not always 100% protective and microbes are everywhere! I do know that if we didn’t wear these protective barriers that our risk of a communicable disease would increase drastically and so would the risk to our patients.

One of the ways the Business Insider measured how damaging a job can be to your health was by “exposure to contaminants”. I imagine the first thing that comes to mind for dentists is their exposure to radiation because most people probably think all we do is take x-rays of teeth and diagnose a problem. This not entirely untrue and yes, prolonged exposure to radiation can be harmful, but dental x-ray radiation is far less than one might think. We also use protective barriers and are rarely if ever in the same room that the x-ray is being taken. What people probably fail to realize is that our exposure to other contaminants other than x-ray radiation is far greater. For example many of the disinfectants that we use can be toxic, we use glutaraldehyde, glutaraldehyde with phenol, hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen peroxide with peracetic acid, alcohols, quatemary ammonium chloride, oxidizers (bleach), formaldehyde and phenolics. Some of these chemicals can be carcinogenic or are highly corrosive. We take every precaution outlined by the MSDS reports, OSHA, and ADA, but yes our exposure to these chemicals is much higher than other professions.

The last criteria, according to the Business Insider’s article, for a job that is “damaging to your health” is time sitting. Most of the dentists, dental hygienist and dental assistants that I know sit to do most treatments. There are a few procedures that are done standing, but very few and most dentists will still sit to do them. I am assuming that the thought here is that if you are sitting you are not very active, thus not burning calories and ultimately gaining weight. I have been a dentist in Tigard, Oregon for 6 years now and I can say that most days I return home exhausted, sometimes feeling like I ran a marathon. But I was sitting down most of the day. So yes I agree that dentist sit most of the day, however, we are working hard to fix teeth and sometimes breaking a pretty good sweat doing it. If there is anything I would be concerned about would be my posture as I sit doing difficult procedures day in and day out. Many dentists that I know suffer from neck, back and shoulder problems. So, I think the article is fairly inaccurate when it comes to understanding the type and amount of work done while sitting.

As excited as I was to finally see dentists ranked #1 on a list, I wasn’t too thrilled to see it as the “Most Damaging Job to Your Health”. However, I don’t think it is as damaging as this article might inform. If proper precautions are taken, wearing of protective barriers, following specific protocols, handling chemicals properly, and basically living a healthy lifestyle, I don’t think a dentist has to worry anymore than the general public. As a dentist, I am more concerned about the mental health of juggling a business, patient needs, employee desires, and taking care of a growing family. Dentistry is what makes me happy. I love helping people and improving their teeth and smile. I think dentists should be #1 on the “Most Satisfying Job” list.