A closer look at the dental industry and ergonomics

The dental industry needs to take a hard look at how the hygienists and dentists actually use their instruments in performing specific procedures and the harmful effects that result. With statistics of up to 75 percent of clinicians having some form of repetitive stress injury and increasing numbers of dental professionals out of work, we urgently need to look at ergonomics.
Repetitive stress injuries caused by instrumentation resulted in multiple surgeries and consequently the end of my career, says Marann Ferranti, RDH, BS, the inventor of the Ergo-grasp and a dental hygienist with 18 years experience.
During her rehabilitation therapy, Marann researched the causes of such injuries and discovered that the grasp of an instrument is of paramount importance in the cause or prevention of repetitive stress injuries to dentists and hygienists. One of her conclusions was that merely increasing the diameter of the instrument handle really doesn't address the ergonomics issues in the hand function. The specialized grasp during instrumentation puts stresses on joints and nerves due to the repetitive forces of the push/pulling and rotating motions of scaling, root planing, and other types of operative instrumentation -- all compounded by the tight grip necessary during instrumentation performance can result in injury.
For more information, call (866) 209-ERGO or visit www.ergograsp.com.