Straighten up your act

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As dental professionals, we all know that prevention is better than cure. We tell our patients to clean their teeth twice daily and educate them on ways to prevent disease and decay.  We don’t tell patients to start cleaning their teeth only when they feel pain – we tell them they should be cleaning their teeth to prevent disease and keep their oral health in good condition.

It should be the same story for us. It’s long been known that bad working posture in dentistry can lead to wear and tear on muscles and joints. Most of us have experienced working in a poor postural position for hours on end causing back and neck pain, not to mention tired eyes. In fact, it is well-documented that dentists experience more neck, shoulder and back pain than practitioners in other occupational groups.

Help is at hand

So, what is the answer to the many of these physical problems dental professionals face?

  1. Magnification – Practising with a natural posture is virtually impossible without proper magnification and the correct angle of declination (how much you tilt your head). With loupes, you can immediately start to see things you simply couldn’t before, regardless of how good your normal eyesight is. Without them, you are constantly leaning in to get a better look in the patient’s mouth, leading to strain on the neck and back. The working distance between your eyes and the patient, together with the angle of declination, need to be appropriate for you. Getting these two things right minimises stress on the neck, back and shoulders, leading to a comfortable viewing position of the working area, which in turn aids the delivery of high quality clinical work.
  1. Light – Perfectly matched with magnification is a loupe-mounted LED light. For extra comfort and ease of use, seek one out that is portable and lightweight to provide shadow-free light and line-of-sight and illumination so that whatever you look at is perfectly lit – even when using a mirror.
  1. Stools – Seating yourself on an ergonomic stool can help improve your posture and make dentistry more comfortable when moving in closer to the patient. Be sure that your stool facilitates a healthy working position by offering an open angle between the upper legs and back (about 110° or more) so that a slight hollow curvature of the spine is obtained. Finding one that offers adjustable back support will also help prevent the backward rounding of the spine.

It’s never too late

It’s never too late, nor too early to make a real difference to the way we work and prevent health problems further down the line. Whether you feel as if you are on the way out at 45, or you’re a 20-something, newly qualified dentist, making an investment on the right equipment could make all the difference. Ultimately we can then provide better care and comfort for our patients, whilst also taking better care of ourselves.

To find out how you can start looking after yourself with any of the solutions mentioned in this article, click here and we’ll be in touch with our recommended solutions.

 

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