Musculoskeletal disorders and risk factors related to the dentists' work

The aim of this study was to know the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and its possible relation with social, demographic and occupational factors in dentist who worked at private service. Deal with a cross-sectional epidemiologic study with sample composed by dentists enrolled on “lato sensu” specialization courses, who had been realizing their clinical activities since 12 months at least, and those who work at cities of  of São Paulo State/Brazil. The study followed the ethic dictates recommended by Helsinki’s declaration. Data were collected using a translated to Portuguese language and validated questionnaire: the NMQ “Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire”. It were collected also the social, demographic and occupational variables. Among all the interviewed dentists (N=91), 58 (63.74%) were women and 33 (36.26%) male; the age average was 30.68 years (± 6.16). the majority of participants reported to practice some physical activity (62.64%) and average of the Body Mass Index (BMI) was 25.02 (± 4.82). The experience of pain was reported by 94.57% of dentists at least in one part of body over the last year in time of profession. The most attacked areas were neck (60.4%), inferior part of back (58.2%), superior part of back (54.9%), shoulders (47.3%), and wrists/hands (45.1%). The workload of majority dentists was over 8hours daily (36.36%), and the pauses during work was reported by 54.94% of total. The dentists showed high prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders mainly in neck and superior part of back, which suggest to be related to postures adopted during the attendance, excessive workloads and few pauses to relax.