Antons Maksimovs
Introduction: During the research, 150 dentists were interviewed. According to the results, it is possible to subjectively evaluate the situation among dentists in Latvia. The results from this study coincide with several researches made by other scientists in terms of this subject. In general, their results are similar to the conclusions of this work.
Purpose: The aim is to examine problems, which affect professional dentists’ health, using survey results and other authors' researches.
Methods: Empirical data collection method was applied. A survey with 15 questions about the topic: "Is it healthy to be a dentist?" was made, and 150 dentists were interviewed to determine, how working conditions affect dental health.
Results: 30% of respondents have more than 20 years of work experience. 25% of respondents have 10-20 years of work experience, but for 45% it’s less than 10 years. Respondents were aged between 22 and 73 years, but work experience ranges from 6 months to 49 years. 66.6% of the interviewed are women, but 33.3% are men. 7.7% work less than 20 hours per week, 28.2% work 20-30 hours per week, 20.5% of the interviewed work 30-40 hours per week, 38.5% work 40-50 hours per week, and 5.1% work more than 50 hours per week. 90% of dentists feel pain after work. The pain is mostly located in the back (respondent’s note that in lumbar and neck regions pain focuses the most), head, arms and legs.
Conclusions: In dentists' work, there are many professional psycho-physiological factors, which heavily influence dentist's health. Surgical Dentists usually stand while working, but dental therapists are sitting, but almost all the time they occupy awkward and uncomfortable sitting posture. Despite the fact that dentists work in well-lit rooms, more than one third notices vision decrease.