Ergonomics and Dentistry: A Literature Review

Details

• Personal Author:
  Mangharam J ; McGlothan JD
• Description:
  This chapter provides a brief summary of selected .literature on ergonomics and dentistry. It is organized into three main parts: musculoskeletal disorders and risk factors; psychosocial disorders and risk factors; and availability and effectiveness of current ergonomic interventions. The objective is to highlight selected works rather than to provide an exhaustive treatise of the literature in this area. Table 1 breaks the literature down by author, study design, sample size, instruments used (such as questionnaires), measures (from instruments used), and results and conclusions. Table 2 shows that dentists are more than twice as likely as dental assistants and dental hygienists are more than three times as likely to have repetitive musculoskeletal injuries and illnesses. Psychosocial-related musculoskeletal disorders appear to be connected with time pressures that may not allow dental personnel to fully recover between patients or tasks. These pressures may be driven by changes in the health care system that require extreme efficiency for a practice to be profitable. Finally, the availability of ergonomic interventions is limited because most solutions are reported anecdotally rather than studied systematically for effectiveness. However, recent advances in dental workplace layout, instruments, and operatory furniture show promise. Systematic, quantitative, epidemiologic evaluations of ergonomically designed dental furniture and instruments, as well as informative literature about good work practices and work postures in dentistry are needed to provide guidance in combating potentially career-ending musculoskeletal disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Cumulative Trauma Disorders Dental Offices Ergonomics Health Personnel Mental Health Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Stress, Psychological Vibration

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• Keywords:
  Back-injuries Carpal-tunnel-syndrome Cumulative-trauma Cumulative-trauma-disorders Dentistry Dentists Equipment-design Hand-injuries Hand-tools Health-care-personnel Musculoskeletal-system Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Neck-injuries Physiological-disorders Physiological-effects Psychological-effects Psychological-reactions Psychological-responses Psychological-stress Psychological-testing Repetitive-work Risk-analysis Risk-factors Statistical-analysis Vibration-effects Vibration-exposure

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• ISBN:
  08755302330
• Publisher:
  American Public Health Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Book
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DPSE - Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  25-81
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027680
• Citation:
  Ergonomics and the Dental Care Worker. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association, 1998 Jun; :25-81
• Editor(s):
  Murphy DC
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1998
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Ergonomics and the Dental Care Worker
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:08060bb7fb248f8665801af22d0cf6774e634c3ad267e2ff58a7fab183b31537e6ceb6f9dbadefb822104ba2479dc4905576ddeff94bcc07a4fe6d93f8215bd6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/197621/cdc_197621_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 14.18 MB ]