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IS BEING A DENTAL PROFESSIONAL PAIN?

Updated: Mar 16

The prevalence of general musculoskeletal pain among dental professionals is common and ranges between 64% and 93%.

In dental hygienists pain is most commonly felt in hands and wrists (60-70%) while dentists most commonly suffer pain in their back (37-60%) and neck (20-85%).


Many risk factors have been identified, including static and awkward posture and working practices. Overall, musculoskeletal problems represent a significant burden for the dental profession.*


Can you relate to this?


It’s Monday morning and despite a manic start with your family in the morning, you arrive at work in good time to check your list, patient records and prep the trays prior to the start of the morning clinic.


You are READY

You are ready for the day!

It’s going to be a good day!

However...


Your first patient arrives late but also needs to return to her car before finally entering your surgery ten minutes late!

To compound this stressful start to the day, this is a new direct access patient.

You have a new practice agreement that every direct access patients are booked for 40 minutes. This patient was mistakenly booked for 30 minutes and is now late! The patient apologies and you reply politely: “That’s ok, we’ll do what

we can,” despite knowing that this will take longer than 20 minutes, and frustrated that you are now going to run late all morning unless someone cancels!


Your stress levels begin to rise again.

The morning rolls on and everyone arrives for their appointment, with a couple of patient complaints about the fact that you are running late. Once again, you have very little break at lunch!


As dental hygienists and therapists, we need to treat a set number of patients: as a self-employed clinician, we need to ensure our income; for clinicians who are employed, there is pressure from management to fill ‘white space’ in the diary and ensure the surgery is making money. In general terms, there are times in our working days when we all feel stressed.


Chronic stress will impact our bodies:


  • Our shoulders rise, temporarily or permanently, depending how busy and stressed we feel

  • Our muscles tense sometimes going into spasm or putting pressure on a nerve causing chronic pain

  • We stop adjusting the patient chair correctly and move our body into uncomfortable positions

  • Our posture is unlikely to be in neutral position for any length of time

  • We are likely to experience overwhelming fatigue

  • We may start speaking faster to speed up the appointment. Only that this doesn’t work as patients will not understand and ask you to repeat what you said.

    When our body’s ergonomics are so compromised, achingall over and feeling exhausted at the end of the day are likely outcomes. For some clinicians this will result in lost working days. Over the long term, incorrect ergonomics may affect the longevity of your career in dentistry.


What can you do?


Good time management will help to relieve much of the daily stress in practice. Being in control of our diaries is one positive step that can help.

Appointment times need to be mutually agreed with the practice employer. There is a lot to be considered, including:


  • Patient types and their needs vary: new patients; direct access patients; anxious patients; long standing patients of the practice but new to you; patients who require local anesthetic etc.

  • Patient notes: contemporaneous note taking is mandatory. This all takes time.

  • Nursing assistance: this is gold standard! However, if you are required to work alone, you should negotiate extra time between patients. You also should be paid for this time spent on decontamination and sterilisation.



Help is at hand


No dental professional should be in pain related to their working environment. If you suffer from any musculoskeletal issues, please get in touch.


LOOSE HANDS is a ergonomic and fitness training for whole dental practice / clinic.


Start with exploring live LOOSE HANDS short sessions during March 2025 after your work at 5.20pm or 6.20pm. Join me in a private FB group:








References *

  • Hayes MJ, Cockrell D, Smith DR. A systematic review of musculoskeletal disorders among dental professionals. Int J Dent Hyg. 2009;7(3):159-65.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/19659711/

  • Bucata GE, Ferdohleb A. Musculoskeletal disorders among dental professionals. InMedEspera 2018; 7:67-168.

  • Harris ML, Sentner SM, Doucette HJ, Brillant MG. Musculoskeletal disorders among dental hygienists in Canada. Canad J Dent Hyg. 2020;54(2):61.

  • Netanely S, Luria S, Langer D. Musculoskeletal disorders among dental hygienist and students of dental hygiene. Int J Dent Hyg. 2020;18(2):210-216.





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