Engaged or exhausted—How does it affect dentists’ clinical productivity?

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examines whether job burnout (exhaustion) and work engagement are associated with the clinical productivity of dentists measured by the amount of paid procedure fees in a single month. We conducted an OLS regression analyses of data on dentists working at municipal health centers in Finland (N = 269; response rate 37%). The results indicated that work engagement was positively associated with the amount of procedure fees and consequently with dentists’ pay level after several work-related and demographic background variables were controlled for. However, exhaustion was not related to productivity after controlling for the impact of other factors.