Frequency of ergonomics effects on dental students: a review of the literature.
Description
The purpose of ergonomics in health is to design work environments that minimize physical stress and repetitive movements in the human body, contributing to long-term health and well-being. The incorrect application of ergonomics increases the risk of bone, muscle and tendon disorders. In the case of dentists, poor ergonomics can lead to musculoskeletal disorders MSDs, especially during academic training due to the postures adopted during clinical practice. The realization of the present research will serve for the knowledge and understanding of this functional pathology would help the implementation of university policies or programs for the maintenance of ergonomics during the academic work and training of students. An advanced documentary compilation was carried out in the databases Pubmed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Ebsco host and Cochrane Library in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The study is based on a descriptive review of the literature on the frequency of MSDs in dental students at different levels of training and their relationship with sex, age and type of injury developed during the study plan. From the search of articles 205 were selected that were related to the title of the topic to be investigated, of these 205 were reduced to 25 that were not duplicated and that had the complete summary, the reduction and inclusion of the final article was to six, because these did have a close relationship with the topic to be investigated and that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The results found according to sex showed a total population of 304 of both sexes; where 211 (69%) were female and 93 (31%) were male. Fifty percent of the female sex suffered from some musculoskeletal disorder while 14% of the male sex had MSDs. According to the clinical level, the total number of students was 146. Divided by clinical level, 62% suffered MSDs in the first year of clinical training, 68% in the third year and at least 69% in the fifth year. According to the area affected by MSD. According to the area affected by MSD, the most affected was the neck with 58% of students having this condition. Then followed by the lower back with 54%, shoulder and upper back with 38%, wrists with 26%, head with 17%, knee with 15%, elbows with 12%, hips with 11%, and the least affected area was the ankles with 9%. In conclusion, it was identified that the dental students with the highest risk of MSDs are in the last semester of the dental career; the most prevalent sex was female and the most affected area of the dental students was the neck, followed by the lower back, then the shoulder and upper back, and finally the least affected area was the ankles and feet.
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An advanced documentary compilation was carried out in the Pubmed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Ebsco host and Cochrane Library databases. The keywords used for the search were: MSD, dental ergonomics, risk factors for musculoskeletal injuries using Boolean connectors, in Spanish, English and Portuguese. For the elaboration of an adequate search, the research was carried out following the parameters suggested by the Model of Clinical Questions (P.I.C.O.S., Model of Clinical Questions). The descriptors for the search in English “Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)” with the respective logical operator were: “(Ergnomics, musculoskeletal, disorders, dentist, risk labour)” AND Ergonómicas OR, for the search in Spanish the following descriptors were used; Ciencias de la Salud (DeCS) (Dentista, Ergonomía) ‘and’, “OR”.
Institutions
- Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena