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Compend. Oral Sci:vol1(5);2015;32-39

fact has drawn serious concern to many In the bigger picture, the risk factors of MSDs
organizations including the National Institute for include the personal factors, equipment and en-
Occupational Safety and Health (2). vironment at work place (13, 14). In a daily
Throughout the world, MSDs has been reported routine work of a dentist for an instance, dental

to affect two out of every three dentists at procedures always involved and required
various degree of severity (7), which later repetitive motions of the fingers and wrists as
contributed to their early retirements from well as prolonged awkward postures in a limited
service (8). It is believed that practicing good working area (14, 15). On top of that, routine
ergonomic at work place would offer preventive dental procedures such as cavity preparations,
measure against this occupational health, thus restorations, scaling and extractions demanded
the MSDs (2). for precise motor skills with intense hand-eye
coordination (14). Any one of the said factors is
Dental ergonomics is the term used to describe
a known risk factor for MSDs. Besides, working
ergonomic practice in dental profession (9). It
in the same posture for long hours during dental
covers many aspects from the correctness of
procedures is another important factor (10).
various postures of dentist at work, positions of
Although there are reports on the prevalence of
daily used dental equipments including the
MSDs among dentists worldwide, there are
dental chair, arrangement and selection of
limited data addressing dentists in Asia thus in
equipments up to the scheduling of dental
Malaysia. This pilot study was undertaken to
procedures between the hard or long cases
find the prevalence of muscular pain among
with the simple or short ones (7). However,
practising dentists in Universiti Teknologi MARA
workplace is only one factor whilst the risk
(UiTM) and it relatedness to ergonomic factors.
factors of MSDs are multifactorial. Posture at
work seem to play a big role as the discomfort
or pain sensed was mainly attributed by
Materials and Methods
prolonged non-neutral work postures and high
static muscle activity besides repetitive or An informed consent form and questionaire
stressful motions of hand and wrist adapted from Kanteshwari et al. (2011) was
(Abduljabbar, 2008 (10). In reality, although distributed between January and February 2013

dentists always strived to maintain a neutral to practising dentists in UiTM. The data
and balanced posture, they often end-up in collected was based entirely on the perceptions
awkward postures. Gambhir et al., have and self-reports from the respondents. Their
reported that strained posture while working reports were based upon their routine practices,
(both while standing and sitting close to a equipment configurations, posture and
patient) would have put an extra burden on the positioning profiles, medical histories, personal
spine and limbs thus resulted in negative exercise habits, and musculoskeletal symptoms
effects on the musculoskeletal and peripheral experienced if any. This questionnaire required
nervous systems (11). The pain perceived was about 5 minutes to be completed. The
possibly due to ischemic condition resulted from questionnaire consisted of self-administered
activities that exerted asymmetrical forces section for demographic data and followed by
applied on the spinal column (12). closed-ended questions with “yes” or “no”

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