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Musculoskeletal Disorders among Italian Dentists and Dental Hygienists

Dental professionals often perform physically and mentally demanding therapeutical procedures. They work maintaining muscular imbalance and asymmetrical positions for a long time. The aim of the study was to describe the prevalence and the factors associated to work-related musculoskeletal disorders...

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Autores principales: Gandolfi, Maria Giovanna, Zamparini, Fausto, Spinelli, Andrea, Risi, Alessandro, Prati, Carlo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7967428/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33800193
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052705
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author Gandolfi, Maria Giovanna
Zamparini, Fausto
Spinelli, Andrea
Risi, Alessandro
Prati, Carlo
author_facet Gandolfi, Maria Giovanna
Zamparini, Fausto
Spinelli, Andrea
Risi, Alessandro
Prati, Carlo
author_sort Gandolfi, Maria Giovanna
collection PubMed
description Dental professionals often perform physically and mentally demanding therapeutical procedures. They work maintaining muscular imbalance and asymmetrical positions for a long time. The aim of the study was to describe the prevalence and the factors associated to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) among Italian dental professionals and the most affected body regions. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted between March 2019 and February 2020. The Nordic Musculoskeletal questionnaire (NMQ) was implemented with questions related to working habits (dental occupation, working hours per week and per days, years of work) and lifestyle (practiced physical activity, including frequency and duration, mobilization activities, and knowledge of ergonomic guidelines) was used. The-chi square test was carried out to detect any statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). Logistic regression was carried out to detect the most significant factors associated to WMSD occurrence. A total of 284 questionnaires have been used for the analysis. A high proportion of dental professionals (84.6%) were affected by WMSD in the last 12 months. A higher prevalence was found in females (87%) when compared to males (80%). The prevalence of WMSD was correlated to the working hours/day and hour/week, with a higher risk for operators working >5 h/day and >30 h/week. In addition, a high prevalence was found in operators working for 2–5 years after graduation. Most of the surveyed dental professionals practiced physical activity (70.1%) but only a few had satisfactorily knowledge of ergonomic guidelines (12.7%). Interestingly, participants who practiced yoga or stretching as physical activities demonstrated lower WMSD (77%) when compared to other physical activities (84%). We can highlight that generic physical activities have no functional effect on WMSD for dental professionals. The most affected body areas were neck (59.9%), shoulders (43.3%), lumbar region (52.1%), dorsal region (37.7%) and wrists (30.6%). Considering the magnitude of the problem, there is an urgent need to implement the education in ergonomics among dental professionals, that may be achieved by teaching biomechanics, posturology and integrative functional therapies (such as yoga) during the university education and by promoting holistic health of dental operators.
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spelling pubmed-79674282021-03-18 Musculoskeletal Disorders among Italian Dentists and Dental Hygienists Gandolfi, Maria Giovanna Zamparini, Fausto Spinelli, Andrea Risi, Alessandro Prati, Carlo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Dental professionals often perform physically and mentally demanding therapeutical procedures. They work maintaining muscular imbalance and asymmetrical positions for a long time. The aim of the study was to describe the prevalence and the factors associated to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) among Italian dental professionals and the most affected body regions. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted between March 2019 and February 2020. The Nordic Musculoskeletal questionnaire (NMQ) was implemented with questions related to working habits (dental occupation, working hours per week and per days, years of work) and lifestyle (practiced physical activity, including frequency and duration, mobilization activities, and knowledge of ergonomic guidelines) was used. The-chi square test was carried out to detect any statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). Logistic regression was carried out to detect the most significant factors associated to WMSD occurrence. A total of 284 questionnaires have been used for the analysis. A high proportion of dental professionals (84.6%) were affected by WMSD in the last 12 months. A higher prevalence was found in females (87%) when compared to males (80%). The prevalence of WMSD was correlated to the working hours/day and hour/week, with a higher risk for operators working >5 h/day and >30 h/week. In addition, a high prevalence was found in operators working for 2–5 years after graduation. Most of the surveyed dental professionals practiced physical activity (70.1%) but only a few had satisfactorily knowledge of ergonomic guidelines (12.7%). Interestingly, participants who practiced yoga or stretching as physical activities demonstrated lower WMSD (77%) when compared to other physical activities (84%). We can highlight that generic physical activities have no functional effect on WMSD for dental professionals. The most affected body areas were neck (59.9%), shoulders (43.3%), lumbar region (52.1%), dorsal region (37.7%) and wrists (30.6%). Considering the magnitude of the problem, there is an urgent need to implement the education in ergonomics among dental professionals, that may be achieved by teaching biomechanics, posturology and integrative functional therapies (such as yoga) during the university education and by promoting holistic health of dental operators. MDPI 2021-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7967428/ /pubmed/33800193 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052705 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gandolfi, Maria Giovanna
Zamparini, Fausto
Spinelli, Andrea
Risi, Alessandro
Prati, Carlo
Musculoskeletal Disorders among Italian Dentists and Dental Hygienists
title Musculoskeletal Disorders among Italian Dentists and Dental Hygienists
title_full Musculoskeletal Disorders among Italian Dentists and Dental Hygienists
title_fullStr Musculoskeletal Disorders among Italian Dentists and Dental Hygienists
title_full_unstemmed Musculoskeletal Disorders among Italian Dentists and Dental Hygienists
title_short Musculoskeletal Disorders among Italian Dentists and Dental Hygienists
title_sort musculoskeletal disorders among italian dentists and dental hygienists
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7967428/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33800193
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052705
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