Page 38 - FINAL COMPENDIUM 2020-2021 27.2.2022

PRACTICE OF DENTAL ERGONOMICS AMONG GOVERNMENT DENTAL OFFICERS IN
TERENGGANU
NMRR-20-2960-57804

Ng JV, Muhammad Fareez AJ, Sabrina Julia MJ, Wan Norezriny WAK, Mohd Rizatulfaiz M, Fakhira Athirah Sahira Z, Nur
Ilmi Hafizah MZ

Introduction: The government general dental practitioners in Terengganu provide
numerous services and treat many patients in a day. This puts them at a higher risk for
pain related to dental ergonomics practice. The practice of good dental ergonomics is
crucial to the well-being of dental practitioners and a study should be conducted to assess
their ergonomics practices. Materials and methods: A self-administered “Dental
Ergonomic Questionnaire”, adapted from Gandavadi (2008) was distributed as a google
form to the participants. An ergonomics score was calculated based on the respondent’s
answer to Section C. Pearson’s chi-squared test was used to determine the association on
the prevalence of pain related to dental ergonomics practice in the past four weeks and
working hours with the ergonomic scores. Results: A total of 367 dental practitioners from
8 districts participated in the study (91% response rate). Majority of the respondents were
Malay, female, and among the 25 to 35-year-old age group. 181 practitioners practiced
good ergonomics, 177 practiced moderate ergonomics and 9 had poor ergonomics.
Among those practiced good ergonomics, 62 (34.3%) of them experienced pain in the past
4 weeks, while for the moderate ergonomics group, 118 (66.7%) experienced pain. On the
other hand, all dental practitioners with poor ergonomics practice had experienced pain.
However, there was no significant association between working hours and the prevalence
of pain related to dental ergonomic practices among government dental practitioners in
Terengganu. Conclusions: Approximately half of the dental practitioners in Terengganu
practice moderate to poor ergonomics. This may be due to lack of ergonomics training.
Dental practitioners with poor ergonomics practice experienced pain, as seen in other
studies. Inexperienced dental practitioners may be part of the reason why there was no
significant association between the working hours and prevalence of pain. The lack of
experience and poor ergonomics lead to the development of pain even if they are only
work only for a short hours.

Keywords: Dental ergonomics, Pain, Working hours

nd
Virtual oral presentation at the 22 NIH Scientific Conference 2021 on 21 – 23 September 2021
Dr Ng Jia Ven
Dr Muhammad Fareez Abd Jalil
Dr Wan Norezriny Wan Ab Kadir
Dr Mohd Rizatulfaiz Manan
Dr Fakhira Athirah Sahira Zulkifli
Dr Nur Ilmi Hafizah Mohamad Zakaria
Marang District Oral Health Service
Terengganu, Malaysia

Dr Sabrina Julia binti Mohd Jeffry
Oral Health Division
State Health Department of Terengganu
Terengganu, Malaysia

14