Kuala Lampur, March 29 -- In February, Malaysia's Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Dr. Zaliha Mustafa, came forward with a shocking announcement: more than 40,000 civil servants are at high risk of mental illness.

The alarming number points to the tremendous stresses on public servants, particularly in health services, where the strains of service, bureaucracy, and domestic life frequently converge with terrible consequences. Among these professionals, dental clinicians working in government services-either the Ministry of Health (MOH) or public universities-are faced with a unique set of challenges that increase stress, burnout, and mental depletion.

In public universities dental hospital, the dental staff with their dual r...