Dentists’ low back pain
Keywords:
motor system pain disorders, ergonomics of work, occupational diseasesAbstract
Introduction. The work of a dental surgeon often entails remaining in a forced and non-ergonomic body posture for a prolonged time. Consequently, the spine is exposed to overstraining for many hours. This in turn may manifest in spine pain disorders. For some time now, dentists can choose between two working methods. They proceed at the patient’s right-hand side, which requires them to lean forward and rightward, or they may work from behind the patient’s head using a specially adjusted chair that enforces a proper position of the lumbar spine.
Material and methods. The research was carried out to assess dentists’ lumbar spine pains. The subjects were divided into two groups depending on the posture they adopted while working. The research included 63 dentists. To analyse the results, a few simple tests and a questionnaire were carried out.
Results. Among the dentists proceed at the patient’s right- hand side, 18 of them (54,5%) indicated on the sixth level of pain, 11 patients (33,3%) the seventh level of pain and four (12,1%) dentists suffered from pain at fifth level of the pain scale (0-10). In the group of dentists working in the position from behind the patient’s head pain scale did not exceed third level.
Conclusion: dentists’ working posture has a significant impact on the formation of the lumbar spine disorders. Position of the dentists working from behind the patient’s head is more ergonomic than position while working on the patient’s one side. Dentists working on patient’s one side more often report the pain in a low back spine section.
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