Nelson & Jevack (2001) concluded, "Due to the number of students and licensed dental hygienists who experience pain...proper ergonomics should be enforced in dental hygiene education for future physical wellness and career longevity among dental hygienists" (p. 119).
The researchers (Nelson & Jevack, 2001) suggest -- as others have -- that instruments be redesigned, but also, the working environment needs to be improved for "better adjustments on patient chairs such as adequate height and tilt adjustments, operator stools with support for arms, adequate work breaks, proper lighting angles, space for legs under the patient chair, early medical intervention for symptoms, and angled instruments to reduce wrist flexion" (p. 119). Michalak-Turcotte (2000) recommends that an ergonomic plan be developed for each practitioner. She states, "The objective of an ergonomic program is to fit the job to the worker, rather than the worker to the work" (p. 41). Therefore, each hygienist needs a plan that is specifically suited to him/her and which includes attention to temperature, lighting, nose, equipment design, and workstation design. Due to the repetitive nature of their work, they are at a higher risk for lower back, neck, shoulder, hand, and wrist pain than other health care occupations. This makes it imperative that ergonomic plans be developed and implemented.
Michalak-Turcotte (2000) points out the practice of dental hygiene varies from person to person. Each will have different equipment and instruments requiring different maintenance, different policies about scheduling patients, varying length of appointments, etc. In other words, every practitioner has a different stress level. They suggest alternating patients so that heavy calculus patients don't come in consecutively and planning ways to reduce stress. They point out that dental hygienists usually work sitting down while the patient is usually in a supine position. The hygienist has to use wrist flexion and extended shoulder abduction.
Working in a fixed position can lead to "static loading" on the neck and shoulders.
Some parts of the mouth are not easy to see and require the hygienist to bend and twist at the waist and torque the neck if he or she wants to get a good view. Using a mouth mirror properly can eliminate much of this awkward positioning....
Ergonomics or human factors is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of relations among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human comfort and overall system performance. Ergonomists add to the design and assessment of tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make them attuned with the needs, abilities and limitations
Ergonomics The relation of Ergonomics and Anthropometric Methods & Health Care setting design Four (4) Main Parts of Research Methods and Design in Ergonomics: Research relationship with people's study (theory and hypothesis) Site selection and sampling decisions (setting and population) Data collection methods (survey, measurements) Data analysis types and techniques (statistical analyses) Three (3) different research methods Descriptive Can be qualitative or quantitative Descriptive statistics tell "what is," Different from using inferential statistic Pure fact, no relationships between cause, effect Assess magnitude or
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