Musculoskeletal symptoms of dentists assessed by a multidisciplinary approach.

Musculoskeletal health was studied as part of a comprehensive health examination in 131 professionally active dentists. 42% of dentists had experienced pain and disability (interference with daily activities) by neck-shoulder problems during the preceding year, with a tendency to greater prevalence in salaried dentists than in private practitioners. For the lower back, this percentage was 37. Somatic symptoms of stress, perceiving dentistry as physically too heavy or mentally too straining and a poorer general health status rating were all associated with a greater 1-yr prevalence of neck-shoulder and lower back pain and disability and with poorer general physical fitness. Age, weekly work hours, working posture, use of an assistant, or radiographic degenerative changes in the dentist's skeleton were not associated with 1-yr prevalence of neck-shoulder or lower back pain and disability. The results provide evidence that physical exercise should be recommended to dentists and might also be applicable to subjects in other occupations with similar requirements.