{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T12:42:42Z","timestamp":1776775362257,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,20]],"date-time":"2023-02-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1676851200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction and aim<\/jats:title><jats:p>Dentistry is a highly demanding profession with a strong mental and physical involvement, possibly generating anxiety. Very few studies assessed psychophysiological activity in dentists, while none tried to relate it with gender during a routine working day. This study aims at evaluating correlations between gender, psychophysiological indexes, and psychological variables.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>Data were acquired at the Dental Clinic of the University of Padua on 20 healthy young dentists (10\u2009M-10F) during a 24\u2009h period of a working day. Physiological variables (measured with E4 Empatica) were electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate (HR). Participants anxiety was measured through a self-reported scale on patient-relationship anxiety and through the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Questionnaire (GAD-7).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>5 (3F, 2\u2009M) participants over 20 had a GAD-7 score\u2009\u2265\u200910. Female gender, in comparison to Male, was associated with higher perceived patient relationship anxiety (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.002) and lower HRV (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>-adj\u2009=\u20090.022). The gender Male, although being associated with lower level of self-reported anxiety (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.002), showed an equal number of subjects with a GAD-7 score\u2009\u2265\u200910 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.371). No interaction between gender and EDA was found, nor an effect of GAD score on EDA, HRV and HR values. Higher values of EDA were found during sleep time; a difference between sleep time and working time EDA (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.037) and a difference between sleep time and daytime (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.0045). A different HR between sleep and all daytime (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&amp;lt;\u20090.001) was also highlighted.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>25% of dentists fell within generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis, compared to a maximum of 8.6% in the general population. A possible general biomarker of excessive stress response was measured: a shift of circadian sympathetic activity was found in dentists; a higher activity during sleep in comparison to working time and daytime. The Female gender was associated with higher perceived patient-approach anxiety, lower parasympathetic activity, and a comparable sympathetic activity to the Male gender, thus fostering a possible vulnerability to excessive stress. This study underlines the need to empower the psychological approach to stress and patient-relationship in dentistry.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2023.1045974","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,20]],"date-time":"2023-02-20T06:44:20Z","timestamp":1676875460000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Anxiety in a regular day of work: A 24 hour psychophysiological investigation in young dentists with gender comparison"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Luca","family":"Queirolo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Christian","family":"Bacci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Andrea","family":"Roccon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gastone","family":"Zanette","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Carla","family":"Mucignat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1003","DOI":"10.1016\/j.amjcard.2016.11.059","article-title":"Relation of higher resting heart rate to risk of cardiovascular versus noncardiovascular death","volume":"119","author":"Alhalabi","year":"2017","journal-title":"Am. 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