Eyestrain and musculoskeletal pains like back problems, neck fatigue, and shoulder pain have long been known as a by-product of dental practice. No single dentist, dental hygienist, and other dental professionals who have never experienced occupational pain at least once in his entire career. Some have developed chronic pain, some experienced hunchback dental posture, and some got an injury which had caused a lot of dental professionals to retire at an early age.

Dental Professionals

But this should not be the case. Occupational pain should not be a by-product of dentistry. There are a few things that you can do to eliminated or at least reduce work-related pain in dentistry. However, in order for you to effectively and permanently resolve this pain issue, you need to identify first the risk factors or the primary causes.

Because people are not the same and the nature of occupational pain is somewhat multi-factorial, there is no single intervention that is considered as an ultimate cure that will work for everyone. Some interventions may be effective for you but may not work for others. Fortunately, there are different things that you can try to practice dentistry with less pain, to ensure career longevity, to improve your productivity, and to enhance the quality of your health and life in general.

Practice Dentistry

Take a walk every once in a while

Sometimes when you got too busy you forget to relax and to take a break most especially if there are a lot of patients lining up at the receiving are and waiting for their turn to see you. No matter how busy you are or how tight your schedule is, you must not forget to take a break at least once in awhile. You can walk around or do a bit of stretching every 30 minutes. This will not only help your muscles relax, it can as well somehow reenergize you.

Change your sitting position

Just like taking a short walk, changing your sitting position at least once in every 30 minutes will help loosen up stressed muscles. It will also help minimize or reduce intervertebral disk compression.

Get your own Schultz optical loupes

Dental loupes are specially designed to help dental practitioners especially dentists and hygienists to clearly and closely see the oral cavity in crisp detail and perfect precision. This precision dental instrument eliminates the need for the dental hygienists and dentists to bend forward and to stay close to their patient's mouth. Maintaining such uncomfortable and unnatural position can lead to a variety of musculoskeletal pain.

Dental Loupes Micro Flip-Up

In order for you to enjoy the many benefits that the dental optical loupes offer, you must pick those that are ergonomically designed and those that perfectly fit you and your needs.

Use portable dental headlights

Sometimes, using an ergonomically designed Schultz loupe is not enough. You can further enhance your visual acuity by using a high quality portable dental headlight. If you are to purchase a new headlight, make sure to choose the one that produces pure white illumination that is exactly similar to that of a natural daylight in order for you to see all corners of the oral cavity more clearly without any color distortion.