The study, published in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association, is the first to document aggression toward dentists in the United States. Workplace aggression toward health care professionals is common, with health care settings second only to law enforcement in the rate of violent incidents. However, there are no studies of aggression toward dentists in the U.S. — a workforce of 200,000 — and only four studies have been conducted in other countries.
A substantial proportion of dentists reported experiencing aggression from patients in the past year, including physical (22.2%), verbal (55%), and reputational (44.4%) aggression. An even larger proportion of dentists surveyed were subjected to physical (45.5%), verbal (74%), and reputational (68.7%) aggression at some point during their career. These rates of patient aggression toward dentists are high and comparable with those reported in other health care settings.
— source New York University | Oct 26, 2020