Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders in General Dental Practitioners in Isfahan

Studies on occupational hazards indicate that a large number of dental surgeons are at risk of developing various types of musculoskeletal disorders caused by this profession. Since dentists play an important role in improving the health of the community, musculoskeletal problems in these individuals reduces the duration of useful services by these health practitioners. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among general dental practitioners
in Isfahan. A total of 278 general dental practitioners in Isfahan participated in this descriptive cross-sectional study. A standard Nordic questionnaire was used to collect data which were analyzed with SPSS 21 using chi-squared test and t-test (α = 0.05). According to the results of this study, 95.7% of dental surgeons had musculoskeletal disorders in one or more regions of the nine regions of the body. Only 4.3% of dentists did not report any disorders. The percentages of musculoskeletal disorders in dentists in terms of the region affected was as follows: neck, 78.1%; shoulder, 57.2%; waist, 56.8%; hand and wrist, 52.9%; upper back region, 52.2%; knees, 34.5%; elbows, 17.3%; pelvis and thighs, 16.9%, and legs and ankles, 15.8%. The results of this study showed that musculoskeletal disorders in general dentists in Isfahan is very prevalent and intervention and corrective measures are necessary.