Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among Iranian dentists

Background: Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) among dentists that caused due to physical conditions during dental procedures have become a serious health threat and impose many complications and heavy costs to the dentist and thus the community. In order to avoid these complications it is necessary the causative and predisposing factors to be known and be tackled. Objective: This study deals with the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and related factors among dentists Methods: In this cross - sectional study, 116 dentists who were attended in a national continuing education program were participated. The data gathered trough a questionnaire and then were entered into SPSS 18 software and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests at 0.05 significant levels. Results: 116 Dentist with an average working experiences of 11.7±7.2 years participated in the study. 50% were male and the others were female.87 dentists (75%) had MSDs. The highest affected body part were in order the neck (56.9%) shoulders (43.1%), back (43.1%)hand/wrist (28.4%) and hand/ fingers (26.7%). The average number of MSDs in each dentist was 2.71±2.1. 34.5% were currently under treatment. Data analysis revealed no significant differences in MSDs based on gender, work experience; work hours per day, using the dental assistant and the exercise. Conclusions: Considering the high prevalence of MSDs among dental practitioners and lack of knowledge with ergonomic principles, it seems that more attention should be done in college educations and holding retraining courses for dentists to adopt with ergonomics and getting familiar with the new materials and modern equipment.