Different cultural factors, having different socio-economic levels on dentists’ burnout, are effective. Professional burnout can significantly impact on dentists’ mood and professional health and the quality of their dental services [23]. The aim of this study was to determine the level of burnout among Iranian dentists and its relationship with temperament in terms of traditional medicine and work-related variables variables. The findings showed that in terms of the dimensions of burnout, the areas of emotional exhustion and reduced personal accomplishment were at the lower level, in other words, near to half of the participants had low level of burnout. Awareness of personal characteristics by determination of the temperament effectively facilitates job selection process and improve their assumption related to the job. As a result, burnout will be reduced[24]. According to the results of the present study, 8.3% showed a high rate of burnout in emotional exhustion, 7.5% in depersonalization, and 2.5% in reduced personal accomplishment dimensions. Many of participants exprienced low level of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment and moderate depersonalization. The findings of this survey go in line with the study of Eslamipour et al., which was performed on dentists in Isfahan. Both studies reported the participants had low emotional exhustion and reduced personal accomplishment. This issue may be justified by the cultural similarity of the two Iranian societies[3]. Basirat et al concluded a different result. They were reported reduced personal accomplishment had the first place in ranking of professional burnout dimensions[20]. The difference between the results of similar studies can be related to the discrepancy in smple size, socioeconomic conditions and various personal characteristics. It is interpreted as "mizaj" in view of traditional Persian medicine. Results showed that there was not a significant relationship between none of dimensions of professional burnout and age of the subjects (p>0.05). It was consistent with the results of Jaracz et al., Porto et al [25, 26]. However, other literatures mentioned a significant and inverse relationship between age of individuals with the frequency of depersonalization and decreased personal success[3, 27]. Regarding the mean age groups of the present study people aged 28 to 34 years had higher level of burnout in reduced personal accomplishment and emotional exhaustion dimentions while people aged 30 to 65 years, the oldest age group, showed the lower level of burnout in all dimensions than the younger group. It was confirmed the findings of Shrofi et al, study[28]. This point could be justified, having more working experience and professional skills with aging could lead to lower level of stress of failure of the dental treatment and feeling more self-confidence. Over time, dentists become more adaptable to the work environment, which reduces the various areas of burnout. Although no significant relationship was found between sex and burnout, the average dimensions of burnout in women were lower than men. It was consistent with the results of studies by jaracz et al[25]. However, the study of Eslamipour et al. showed that the frequency and severity of emotional exhustion and depersonalization were significantly higher in men[3].
Most of literatures determined the insignificance between two genders, it seems that this issue is more related to masculine temperament in female employees, this characteristic will be reinforced in dentistry especially noticeable in general dentists. Perhaps a different result would be obtained if this study were conducted in specialized disciplines such as pediatric dentists. This field deal with subtle feminine moods and more noticeable sex differences[29]. However, our result dedicated dentists with 2 to 6 years of work experience had more burnout than dentists with 7 to 36 years of experience, but there was no significant correlation between the work experience of dentists and burnout. In explaining these results, it can be inferred that with aging, the degree of adaptation to the job would be increased. In other words, job satisfication is propable after more working experience. Therefore, less level of burnout would be occurred. This point was affirmed by Porto et al. and Jaracz et al. They found no significant relationship between work experience and burnout [25, 26]. But Basirat et al., mentioned the direct relationship between work experience and dimensions of emotional exhustion and reduced personal accomplishment. They showed higher rate of work experience lead to depersonalization reduction and more accomplishment[20]. The lack of a significant relationship between the dimensions of burnout and work-related variables such as working days per week, number of patients per day and work experience indicates that measurement of all three variables is not required in future studies. It could be suggested all of the above-mentioned vaiables could be considered as working load. Finding showed a significant relationship between the selective or avoidance job and emotional exhustion. It means the dentists whose job was avoidance had more emotional exhustion and depersonalization. It may be concluded if there is job satisfaction and person choose his profession, he will have exprienced less professional burnout [30]. Unfortunately, in Iran, there is no published article about mizaj and burnout among dentists. The novelty of this study was a new approach from the perspective of traditional Persian medicine to evaluate the relationship between burnout and mizaj. Attention to this point could have a significant impact on job satisfaction. These finding was compared with similar studies which evaluated different personality types with burnout[31, 32].
Regarding the past literatures, the correlation between job satisfaction and different dimensions of burnout was negative and significant [33, 34]. Dehghanan et al. determined the effect of different mizaj on job satisfaction of employees. They deducted the coefficients of warmth, coldness and dry and wet temperaments on job satisfaction were significant[35]. Another study also found a positive association between psychological character type and burnout[36]. Many articles have been published in the field of mizaj, but so far none of them have examined its relationship with burnout[37, 38]. According to past studies, it was found that burnout may be occur as a result of a person's mood, which has been measured in different interpretations in studies. Personality types and temperament were the topics of related studies. This study is unique in terms of innovation in the subject. Findings of this study can be applied to conduct more extensive studies in future. Lifestyle modification regarding traditional Persian medicine can be helpful for preventing or minimizing propable burnout.
Limitations
Our study has some limitations to be considered. First, it is vital to be aware of the predictive limitations of cross-sectional studies by limited multiple regression analysis. Causal relationships can be clarified by carrying out additional prospective research. However, the authors understood that this work has an exploratory objective, and the results should be confirmed with further studies with more participants.
Despite of negative effect of burnout on job performance, family and personal role, absenteeism from work and early retirement due to burnout should not be neglected. It is possible to minimize stressors by carefully considering the people, s mizaj before enterance to job positions. It would be suggested that at the time of job selection, people should be decided away from stress to suffer less burnout in future.