Ergonomic Behavior Differences of Dentists and Clinical Students During Dental Treatment: A Survey Study
Ozan Can Elmas1, Assoc. Prof. Işıl Sarıkaya1, Assoc. Prof. Yeliz Hayran2
1 Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University, Tokat, Turkey,
2 Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Bursa Uludağ University, Bursa, Turkey.
Objectives
Awareness of clinical dental students and dentists about ergonomic working, their ideas, and the measures they take while performing treatment is needed to contribute to the literature through self-assessment.
Materials and Methods
A total of 271 people participated in the survey: 38 were dentists, and 233 were dental clinical students from two different cities. Participants answered 27 questions correlated with gender, chronic disease, dominant hand, body mass index, active working time in the profession, and the frequency of suffering back and neck pain via Google Forms. Survey answers have 3-likert scale options: agree, undecided, and disagree. The SPSS package program was used for statistical analysis. When the data was obtained, Pearson chi-square analysis was applied. The statistical significance level was determined as p<0.05.
Results
The study revealed that ergonomic behaviours differ according to gender, active working time in the profession, place of work, and the frequency of suffering back and neck pain. No significant difference was detected according to the dominant hand, chronic disease, and body mass index. There is a relationship between active working time in dentistry and the question, "Listening to music while treating patients increases ergonomics" (χ2=10.372; p=0.035). There is a relationship between the place of work in dentistry and the question, "Taking a long break is more ergonomic than taking a short break" (χ2=6.180; p=0.045). The rate of those working at the university hospital who disagree with the question was 85.1% (57), which differs from those working in other places by 14.9% (10) and was statistically significant.
Conclusions
While 83.3% (228) of the respondents could fully explain ergonomics and its purpose, Only 21% (57) think it works under ergonomics. For long-term dental health, ergonomic awareness should be increased in the education process, and ergonomic work should be encouraged.