How can we help and encourage dentists to develop a healthy working method to prevent them from becoming disabled?

Joseph Wouters, a Dutch researcher and specialist within the field of dental ergonomics, has, since 1994, had the idea of finding the most favourable working posture for dentists. His goal was to find the answer to this question.

Sonde prevention project
Joseph Wouters met with Oene Hokwerda, Professor and President of the European Society of Dental Ergonomics, and this led to the Sonde prevention project; A project intended to analyse the dentists’ working methods and to advise them on the application of improvements.
In this prevention project 1249 dentists were visited and observed while they were working. This was a unique project, never before had such a large number of dentists been observed and advised while they were working.

This project yielded much information and it was discovered for example that 89% of the dentist observed, bent their cervical spines much further than a healthy operating posture allows. We know that, among dentists, there are many physical complaints coupled with a high degree of time off for due to sickness. Currently nearly 1 out of 8 dentists is wholly or partially disabled for more than 3 months. 40-50% of the dentists have to prematurely give up their jobs or work only part-time as a result of incapacity for work.
The study also showed that often too short an operating distance is maintained. This may be because of the lens correction was insufficient or because dentists had acquired the habit of working at such a too short distance.

A manual containing the principles for an ergonomic working method for dentists was made. However, due to lack of money, the Sonde prevention project could, unfortunately, not be continued.

The vision
The eyes have a very fine structure and the retina, which is in fact an extension of the brain, has a very special small area, called the macula lutea (yellowish spot) or the fovea. The eye continuously tries to project the incoming images onto this fovea since it is here that light/dark and colour can be best detected.

The eyes make very many small movements and if the operating distance is too small, the eyes must rotate inwards, which is very tiring. If the eye rolls down, it will also rotate inwards. This would not be a problem if it only happens for a short while, but it is a problem if it happens for the entire day, as is the case within a dentist’s profession. That is why it is so important that vision is sharp at a correct operating distance.

You could expect that, in a profession which relies so much on good vision and where it is essential that small details can be observed, special spectacles are available. But this is not the case, as there are no dentist-specific spectacles.