The Development of Musculoskeletal Disorders during Undergraduate Dentistry Studies—A Long-Term Prospective Study

Abstract

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) frequently occur among dental practitioners and present a significant occupational burden with an early onset in the dentists’ career. This study aimed to analyze the five-year development of self-reported overall MSDs among the dentistry students during the course of their studies and to assess the possible influence of the risk as well as protective factors. The questionnaire inquiry was performed among the first-year dentistry students, regarding the occurrence of MSDs and the presence of potential risk and protective factors. The same students were followed, and they filled in the same questionnaire in the middle and at the end of their studies. A total of 73 dentistry students and 28 general medicine students participated. The occurrence of the overall MSDs statistically significantly increased from 30.1% at the beginning of the first year to 45.2% at the end of the fifth year among the dentistry students. The top-level sport was statistically significantly associated with the higher occurrence of MSDs in the fifth year and with the development of new MSDs between the first and the fifth year. This longitudinal prospective evaluation showed a significant increase in the MSDs occurrence among the dentistry students during their studies.

The Prevalence and Development of Neck and Lower Back Pain and Associated Factors in Dentistry Students—A Long-Term Prospective Study

“…Our study aimed to monitor the development of the most frequent musculoskeletal complaints in various human body areas among dentistry students throughout their entire studies. Contrary to our previously published paper [ 34 ], which presented the results of the analysis of subjectively declared overall musculoskeletal disorders and related factors, this article focuses on musculoskeletal pain in ten followed body regions. The main group of participants, i.e., dentistry students, was the same.…”

“…Top-level sport was explained in our previous article as “a sporting activity that is organized in sport clubs, includes regular workouts, practice, matches, and competitions, is performed on a long-term basis, and the athletes are registered by the official, state-controlled body” [ 34 ]. Based on the multivariate analysis, performing top-level sport increased the occurrence of neck pain in the third year more than 11 times and in the fifth year more than 21 times, and the occurrence of lower back pain in the first year more than 9 times.…”

“…The questionnaire was based on our previous studies among dentists [ 6 , 15 ], modified for the students and pre-piloted. Detailed analyses of the data from the first two parts of the questionnaire concerning descriptive data and the statistically significant correlation between the occurrence and development of overall MSDs and the risk factors followed are described in our previous paper [ 34 ].…”

“…The aim of this study was to assess the five-year development, prevalence, and intensity of the most common musculoskeletal complaints among dentistry students during the full length of their studies, as well as to analyze the impact of some potentially associated risk factors. We build on our previous article, which dealt with the analyses of self-reported overall MSDs in the same sample [ 34 ]. This paper focuses on MSDs in the individual body regions.…”

A RULA-Based Comparison of the Ergonomic Risk of Typical Working Procedures for Dentists and Dental Assistants of General Dentistry, Endodontology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Orthodontics

“…In general, the prevalence of WMSD in dentistry is high [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 32 , 33 ] and WMSD are a major cause for ill-health retirement [ 16 , 34 ]. The characteristics of dental work are known to be responsible for an increased prevalence of WMSD in dentistry, such as the profession of dentistry per se, missing breaks, the work schedule, the number of patients treated and certain activities, such as teeth polishing [ 1 ].…”