Prevalência de sintomas associados a lesões musculoesqueléticas na atividade profissional dos higienistas orais

Abstract

ObjectivesWork‐related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) are among the most prevalent work‐related diseases in dental hygienists (DH), reason for which we decided to conduct a national study to analyze the frequency of symptoms from these DH pathologies, looking for associations with their daily working tasks. MethodsA questionnaire was sent to 415 DH, via the “survey monkey” web page getting a response rate of 61.2% (n=254). ResultsMost WRMSD symptoms referred by this group were on the neck or cervical region (52%), wrist/hand (47.8%), dorsal (45.2%), lumbar (44.5%) and shoulder (44.9%).We observed that the daily working time influences the chance of occurrence of symptoms, mainly with tasks such as root planning or polishing for the cervical symptoms (OR=2,337; p=0,045 and OR=8,909; p=0,043), root planning for the shoulder symptoms (OR=2,758; p=0,022) and scaling and root planning for the wrist symptoms (OR=9,797; p=0,032 and OR=2,527; p=0,029), respectively. ConclusionsThis study suggests that WRMSDs are a real problem among Portuguese dental hygienists that needs to be addressed for an urgent intervention in a way to lower the prevalence of these diseases and to establish preventive strategies to minimize their impact in that group of health professionals.