By Kimberly Benkert, RDH, BSDH, MPH, COM, FAADH T he simple statement “working can be a real pain” can indeed carry many meanings. One of the most common meanings in dentistry and dental hygiene relates to a clinician’s posture and use of ergonomics. It is useful to understand what ergonomics is and how it applies to potential pain encompassing the workplace. This applied science was formalized following the evaluation of human studies of pilots and radar operators. It demonstrated the need for designing technologies that fit both the dimensions and capabilities of the human body and compliment the work of both phys-ical and mental abilities. It studies the ability to sustain physical work while maintaining mental capacity. 1 Human-centered ergonomics studies the natural laws of work as these impact us throughout our day. It has also been referred to as ‘human engineering’. Studies focused on optimizing the design of people-technology systems through human performance limits and factors that affect reliability and the amount of errors, anatomy of biomechanics, our work environ-mental conditions, and various human behaviors. 2 Human-centered ergonomics includes: reducing work-related injury and illness; containing workers’ compensation costs for employers; improving productivity in the workplace; improving the quality of work; reducing absenteeism; and assisting employers comply with OSHA voluntary standards for work envi-ronments and standards. While this area of study began with factory workers safety and effi-ciency of production, today, it applies to every occupation and profession. The biggest concern is the interaction of the human factor as we interface with our work environment. Simply stated, work should not be physically painful or create situations that place one in harm’s way or expose some-one to mechanical, physical or emotional stresses leading to personal injury. Paying attention to control-lable ergonomic issues in the dental environment looks for ways to adjust or decrease the overall risk factors leading to injury and/or illness. The outcome is usually a beneficial payoff in increased productivity, improve-ment in the quality of life of the professional and a happier/healthier work environment. When giving thought to improv-ing work safety and ergonomic issues we need to look first at the work to be done. Most injuries and illness are strongly associated with the lack of use of the right tool for the most efficient outcome while producing the lease amount of discomfort to the worker/clinician. We also need continued monitoring of quality through continuous improvements over time. Simply stated that means we cannot expect our instruments, hand pieces, clinician stools, magni-fication loupes and illumination lights to last the lifetime of our careers. As we grow and change as clinicians we need our equipment to grow and change with us. The concept is CQI: Continued Quality Improvement. As equipment improves, so must we in order to decrease our risk factors in the work-place and improve the quality of services we provide to our patients. A personnel and office ergonomic analysis comes down to evaluating what are the physical characteristics of what we do on a daily basis and what are the specifics of our environ-mental space. This includes issues such as what limitations do we have with space, can we move about freely within it, how close do we need to be to our patient in order to not bump into the cabinetry, do we have room to move about without head, neck or body strain/discomfort, do our instruments and tools work with our body or against it, are the handles ergonomically designed, do we have cords in the way, can we see well with magnification to perform our tasks without straining our neck and upper back, is the lighting bright and focused in our sight line, is our stool the best fit for our body type and size, and are there workplace hazards we need to address. These concepts require using sensory data to provide information for processing. We need to listen to our senses of: seeing, hearing, touching/feeling, smelling, and let our physical body feedback systems provide input. Our physical characteristics of work include: í Posture í Force needed to complete tasks í Repetition of motions & how often made í Duration involved in each task í Recovery time needed to perform the same task í Velocity or speed to maximize our performance í Amount of dynamic physical exertion required í Sustained vibration or auditory components Additional characteristics of our work also include environmental temperature, overall lighting, and background noise. Hazards that might impact our ergonomics (abil-ity to perform work) include: physi-cal stress, mental stress, workload, hours worked with/without breaks, general safety, and exposure to 34 November/December 2012 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society November-December 2012: Page 34
