Abstract

Background: Stress can be defined as any change in the environment that alter or threatens to alter an existing optimal steady state. When a change occurs from the school to the professional education, many students find it difficult to cope up with the new system and develop stress. Stress among medical students is well reported, but studies among dental students are few. Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of stress, levels of stress and its st causes among 1 year dental students and also to find out the awareness of the stress.
Materials and Methods: A cross- st sectional study was done among 100 1 year students from a private dental college with the help of a questionnaire. It has two parts, first part demographic factors and self-reporting of stress with its causes and second part perceived stress scale (PSS) questionnaire by Cohen (PSS-10) to assess the level of stress.
Results: Nearly 85% of the students were found to be under stress. 43% were under high stress, and 42% were having moderate amount of stress. Exams followed by change of environment from house to hostel and missing the parents were the major causes of stress. Females were more stressed than males. Conclusion: Stress was found to be very high among dental students. More studies are required in this field and measures should be taken to decrease the same.