28 April 2023

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Survey about hand pain: NYU College of Dentistry students

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Background

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors for current hand musculoskeletal pain in dental students at a dental school.

Methods

1,889 dental students and postgraduate residents were recruited from the clinics at New York University College of Dentistry to participate in a closed-ended survey on hand pain.

Results

The close-ended survey was completed by 373 dental students (20% response rate) of which 30.6% were D2, 30.6% D3, 27.2% D4, and 11.6% postgraduate. 235 (63.0%) reported musculoskeletal pain of the hand/wrist/fingers while a student at the school. The majority who reported pain responded that it lasted seconds (21.7%) or minutes (42.5%) in duration. However, 35.3% of those with pain described it as moderate or severe, of whom 26.0% reported visiting a physician for their symptoms. There was no overall statistically significant difference in hand/wrist/finger pain by year in dental school training.

Conclusions

Hand musculoskeletal pain may be common among dental students and residents and can be severe for some individuals. Future research should consider the contributions of dental school training on hand pain among students (potentially combined with other factors like mobile phone, tablet, and computer use), as well as implementation of preventive ergonomic training.

In an email to Dentistry33, study co-author Dr. Stuart Segelnick said that based on the findings, the research team concluded that being in dental school is not the cause of students' hand pain and is not due to the work they are doing in dental school. 

Segelnick said that he was surprised to learn that students have so much hand pain. The team also found no real statistically significant changes from one year to the next.  

The hand pain is due to other reasons that researchers speculate could be from using cell phones, computers and similar devices. "However knowing they have this hand pain needs to be addressed and hopefully helped," he said in the email.  

Learn more about reducing hand pain from the American Dental Association: 
https://www.ada.org/resources/practice/wellness/reducing-hand-pain

Today's RDH also covered this topic in late 2022:
https://www.todaysrdh.com/all-thumbs-how-dental-hygienists-should-be-using-their-hands-wisely/

Mea A. Weinberg, Stuart L. Segelnick, Enas Bsoul and Peter M. Loomer. "Survey About Hand Pain: New York University College of Dentistry Students." Journal of the California Dental Association. Article: 2198771 | Published online: 17 Apr 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/19424396.2023.2198771