Musculoskeletal Disorders among Dental Practitioners: Does It Affect Practice?

Abstract

Background. Literature reviews world over have shown a high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among dental practitioners. Prevalence of MSD among dental practitioners in India is not well documented. Aim. To determine the prevalence and distribution of MSD among dental practitioners in a city in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Material and Methods. A cross sectional descriptive study in which a self-administered questionnaire (the Standardized Nordic questionnaire) was used to assess the musculoskeletal symptoms among dental practitioners. The recorded data was analyzed with SPSS 13. -value 0.05 was considered to statistically significant. Results. Seventy-three dental practitioners participated in the study of which seventy-eight percent had a prevalence of at least one MSD symptom over the past twelve months. Most common areas affected by MSD in order of magnitude were neck (52%), low back (41%), shoulders (29%) and wrist (26%). One third of the practitioners (40%) required sick leave from their practice during the preceding twelve months. Conclusions. High prevalence of MSD exists among our dental practitioners affecting the daily practice of more than one third. Further studies are needed to identify the specific risk factors for MSD so as to introduce effective remedial measures.

Determination of Ergonomics, Fitness and Its Impact in Dental Practice : A Kap Study

“…Literature states that certain factors help the participants to relieve their pain which includes correct posture (46.9%), pause for few minutes (32.7%), muscle relaxing exercise (24.5%), analgesic drugs (10.2%), and complete rest for a day (4.1%). Similarly, a study in Glasgow also observed improving posture can definitely help to relieve the pain ( (12). It was observed that 76.88% of the dental practitioners had an angulation of 90 of their knee to the floor (Table 4).…”

“…Similar results were noted in a study conducted by Dhanya M et al, reported that MSD has affected the practitioners and is evident from the percentage taking sick leaves, consultations with doctor and hospitalization. More than one third of the practitioners' required sick leaves (Muralidharan D et al 2013). To get relief from pain 46% of the subjects stretched or exercised.…”

Musculoskeletal Disorders in Dentists: A Systematic Review

“…The body area wise prevalence in an Indian study conducted by Vijaya K K et al2013 [8] was neck (75.74%), followed by wrist/hand (73.13%), lower back (72.01%), shoulder (69.4%), hip (29.85%), upper back (18.65%), ankle (12.31%), and elbow (7.46%). Another study of Pakistan [9] showed that 56% of the dentists experienced backache, followed by 41% pain in neck and 32% had pain in hand, where in an Indian study according to Dhanya M et al2013 [10] the overall prevalence of MSDs was 78%, the most common areas affected with MSDs in order of magnitude were the neck (52%), low back (41%), shoulders (29%), and wrists (26%). In our country there are severe scarcity of data regarding this issue.…”

“…In Brazil a study conducted by Garbin AJI et al2015 [12] showed that 65.67% dentist had job related pain, where as in Saudi Arabia the prevalence of MSDs among respondents was 77.9% (n=53) with the most commonly affected areas the lower back (73.5%) (39/53) followed by the neck (66%) (35/53) and the shoulders (43.3%) (23/53). [13] According to these studies the most prevalent regions that dentists experienced musculoskeletal symptoms were back, neck and shoulder region, [7,8,9,10,13] however the reported prevalence for these regions varied to some extent between studies. About identification of risk factors of MSDs the review result uncovered different risk factors according to different studies in different countries in which inadequate posture during dental work is an important risk factor.…”

Assistance For Dentists In Lithuania

“…According to researchers all over the world, even young dentists face various psychological disorders such as burnout, stress, suicide and drug or alcohol addiction [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Majority of dentists (70-90%) suffer from various physical occupational disordersneck, shoulders, lower back and wrist pain is the most common [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Lithuanian dentists face the same problemmany of them complain with back pain (91.0%), headache (88.7%), hand problems (83.1%) and chest pain (53.8%), 3 Vilnius University, Faculty of Medicine, Lithuania feel tired (82.6%) and tense (80.5%), suffer from anxiety (78.8%) or nervousness (89.2%), problems at work cause insomnia (74%) and awakening at night (78.8%); some dentists suffer from these symptoms constantly [13,14].…”