Abstract
Musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) is already prevalent in dental students despite their young age and the short duration of dental practice. The current findings state that the causes of MSD are related to posture during dental work. This study aims to investigate the ergonomic risk of dental students. In order to analyze the ergonomic risk of dental students, 3D motion analyses were performed with inertial sensors during the performance of standardized dental activities. For this purpose, 15 dental students and 15 dental assistant trainees (all right-handed) were measured in a team. Data were analyzed using the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), which was modified to evaluate objective data. Ergonomic risk was found for the following body parts in descending order: left wrist, right wrist, neck, trunk, left lower arm, right lower arm, right upper arm, left upper arm. All relevant body parts, taken together, exhibited a posture with the highest RULA score that could be achieved (median Final Overall = 7), with body parts in the very highest RULA score of 7 for almost 80% of the treatment time. Dental students work with poor posture over a long period of time, exposing them to high ergonomic risk. Therefore, it seems necessary that more attention should be paid to theoretical and practical ergonomics in dental school.
Highlights
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and the resulting pain have a high prevalence among dentists, but these physical impairments are evident in dental students [1,2,3,4,5]
The maximum score achieved by each respective body part is given and shows the ergonomic risk is in each case
The kinematic analysis of dental activities shows that dental students are exposed to a significantly high ergonomic risk during their dental work
Summary
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and the resulting pain have a high prevalence among dentists, but these physical impairments are evident in dental students [1,2,3,4,5]. The evidence that even dental students are affected by MSD [7,8,9,10,11] has become visible via the use of a modified Nordic questionnaire. Nordic Questionnaire), the prevalence of MSD showed that 85% of the dental students reported MSD in at least one body region [12]. A high prevalence of MSD in the upper body regions has been reported for Australian dental students
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