Tejashree D and Ajit D
Background: Increasing awareness of oral health had seen greater surge in population visiting dental specialists in India. Dental profession has wide scope and lots of demand handling such population. This puts lots of demands on dental professionals and their health itself. Job demands itself needs them to work with fine skills and expertise. Plethora of research is available from across the globe. In India this research area is still blooming. Objectives: To appraise the literature related to current evidence in the field of occupational health of dental professionals. Methodology: Full text articles targeting various aspects of occupational health of dental professionals were searched. Use of Boolean operator “and” along with terms like ergonomics, dental profession and prevalence and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) were done to search relevant articles. Articles involved were randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, Literature reviews. In addition, the reviewers manually checked for any articles in peer reviewed journals. Results: Studies reveal high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) of upper quadrant, neck and back. Ergonomic considerations for dental professionals are suggested but implementation of these remains a question. Precarious literature review is available relating to studies highlighting interventions and evaluation and assessment pertaining to causative factors. Conclusion: Various studies raise an alarm against increased prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. Need of ergonomic interventions is stressed in literature. But lot of research related to posture analysis, muscle work, cumulative trauma disorders are lacking.
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