Dental ergonomics. Ergonomic principles of work in dental laboratories

The dental technician profession is a precise one that requires a high degree of manual skills, work with small tools, and good ophthalmic health. Ergonomics explores the technical aspects of the link between workers, the work environment and the relationship between them. Its main task is to optimize the human-machine-work environment system. Healthcare professionals need to develop senses such as: visual acuity, hearing, depth of perception, psychomotor skills, dexterity, and ability to maintain working positions for long periods of time to perform their procedures. Deterioration of any of them affects the practitioner's performance, efficiency and productivity. There is a lot of research in the literature on the risk factors influencing the work of dental technicians in terms of potential toxic materials, dermatological and respiratory diseases. Impressive is the fact that there is plenty of research on the influence of risk factors such as noise and musculoskeletal disorders affecting dentists and assistants, but research among dental technicians is scarce. Advances in technology in recent years have been aimed at facilitating the practice of dental technology, mainly in order to reduce occupational and iatrogenic risk factors to a minimum