. Mohan Kumar P; . S. Sahitya; . Gautami S. Penmets; . S. Supraja; . Shivashankar Kengadaran; . A. Chaitanya
Volume 10, Issue 10 , October 2020, , Pages 1-5
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Dental students and practitioners are frequently prone towork‑related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) due to the unawareness of ergonomic principleswhen ...
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Dental students and practitioners are frequently prone towork‑related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) due to the unawareness of ergonomic principleswhen practicing dentistry. The aim of this study was to assess the dental student knowledge, attitude,and practice toward ergonomics in three different dental schools.METHODOLOGY: A cross‑sectional study was conducted among 1166 dental students from threedifferent dental schools of Andhra Pradesh, India, to assess knowledge, attitude, and practiceregarding ergonomics. All the participants were provided with prestructured questionnaire formcomprising 13 questions to know their knowledge, attitude, and practice related to ergonomics beforeand after providing guidelines on ergonomic principles.RESULTS: The majority of the dental students appreciate that the most affected regions due towork‑related disorders were back (475 before and 559 after instructions), neck (354 and 420), handand wrist (205 and 117), and shoulder and elbow (132 and 70), respectively. Knowledge and practicescores of dental students (mean and standard deviation) regarding WMSDs before and after applyingergonomic principles were 3.92 ± 2.44, 1.29 ± 1.67 and 5.81 ± 0.87, 3.03 ± 0.60, respectively.CONCLUSION: The present study provides an insight into ergonomics for dental students duringroutine dental procedures. The knowledge, attitude, and practice related to ergonomics weresatisfactorily increased among the participants. Thus, ergonomic education of the dental health‑carepersonnel must be focused in all the educational institutions and at continuing dental health programs bydelivering ergonomic principles both theoretically and practically and should be a part of the curriculum.
