Ergonomics in dental pratice

Abstract

The application of ergonomics is critical so that you can get a suitable working environment for professional, it is safe, healthy and comfortable. The objective was to identify whether the dental students followed the principles of ergonomics during clinical visits, evaluating, through photographs, compliance with ergonomic principles applied in dental practice, and finally identify the most affected sites by RSI / WMSDs of students enrolled in the dental clinic of the Faculdade IMED. Snapshots were made and only considered the position of the student operator, the same taken by the researcher using the mobile device. For each clinical procedure were taken two photographs in hidden angles to the student operator so that it did not change its ergonomic position to be observed. After obtaining the photos, they were evaluated and classified in scores from 0 to 3 according to the adequacy of the work placement, and then inserted into Excel and later in a database (SPSS 15.0). The following work is a cross-sectional, observational study, they were conducted in dental clinics IMED college. Among the 66 respondents, 14 were male and 52 female. It was found that 57 (86,3%) reported feeling pain somewhere in the body, being the most affected sites neck (36.4%), and consecutively lower back (30.3%) and higher than the back (27.3%). The results of the 63 procedures performed by the photographic shots were classified as “inadequate” in 49 procedures, “partially adequate” in 12 and “impossible to evaluate” in 2 procedures. The research results have shown a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and do not follow the ergonomic principles, emphasizing the need for more attention to ergonomics of the students.