Pinch Forces and Instrument Tip Forces During Periodontal Scaling

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dong H ; Loomer P ; Rempel D ; Villanueva A
• Description:
  BACKGROUND: The prevalence of upper-extremity musculoskeletal disorders, such as tendinitis, is elevated among dental practitioners. An important risk factor for these disorders is forceful pinching; however, the pinch forces and instrument forces during scaling are unknown. METHODS: Six dentists and six senior-year dental students were recruited to use an instrumented periodontal scaler to perform their usual dental scaling work on patients. Thumb pinch force was measured by a pressure sensor, whereas the forces developed at the instrument tip were measured by a six-axis load cell. RESULTS: Dental students applied greater mean peak pinch force (35.7 +/- 3.8 N) compared to dentists (24.5 +/- 4.1 N) (P = 0.001). On the other hand, the peak forces generated at the instrument tip, which were directly related to the productivity of the dental scaling task, were higher among the dentists. The application of pinch force by dentists was related to the required scaling forces, whereas students applied excessive pinch force to the tools. CONCLUSIONS: Increased experience in periodontal scaling leads to the application of less pinch force to accomplish scaling. Nonetheless, the applied peak pinch forces in both groups are high and may pose a risk for the development of musculoskeletal disorders of the distal upper extremity. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Biomechanical Phenomena Dental Offices Environmental Monitoring Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Staff Development Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Dental Scaling Biological-effects Biological-function Biomechanical-engineering Biomechanics Cell-biology Cellular-reactions Dentistry Dentists Ergonomics Exposure-assessment Exposure-levels Exposure-methods Hand-injuries Hand-tools Injury-prevention Mechanics Musculoskeletal-system Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Occupational-exposure Occupational-hazards Physiological-effects Physiological-measurements Physiological-response Quantitative-analysis Repetitive-work Risk-analysis Risk-factors Statistical-analysis Tendinitis Training Work-environment Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices Workplace-studies

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• ISSN:
  0022-3492
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  97-103
• Volume:
  76
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037270
• Citation:
  J Periodontol 2007 Jan; 78(1):97-103
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr. David Rempel, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 1301 South 46th Street, Building 163, Richmond, CA 94804
• Email:
  david.rempel@ucsf.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Periodontology
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:aea5d0261a729fd9cff7ebb5e267f7f83e8317f23e99482191e1a8a0cc163e60185fd69be9352ecee1dfd8c91d88edcac660abbad305a50cb25d8a2ccd31d92c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188387/cdc_188387_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.95 MB ]