A Personalized Pre-operative and Intra-operative Ergonomic Feedback to Improve the Dental Work Posture

ABSTRACT

Background

This work presents a novel Ergonomic Trainer System that provides personalized pre-operative and intra-operative ergonomic feedback to improve dental work posture.

Methods

The system consists of two ultrasonic sensors to measure the height of operator’s seat and dental unit; two accelerometers to measure the angles of the operator’s neck and upper arm; and software to analyze data from each operator and provide a personalized pre-operative and intra-operative ergonomic feedback. Sixteen dental students were randomly assigned into a crossover trial, scheduled for each of two sequences of working: receiving feedback or no-feedback from the system while performing tooth preparation. The parameters measured were the extensions of the neck and upper arm, before (pretest) and after (posttest) receiving feedback or no-feedback from the system.

Results

The posttest angles of neck and upper arm had decreased significantly compared with pretest angles in the group that received preoperative and intra-operative ergonomic feedback from the system (p < .05).

Conclusion

Performing the dental treatment with pre-operative and intra-operative feedback had effects on improving the posture of the dental students by decreasing the angles of neck and upper arm.

Disclosure of potential conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Research Council of Thailand.

Notes on contributors

Bhornsawan Thanathornwong

Bhornsawan Thanathornwong, Head of Department of General Dentistry and an associate professor at Faculty of Dentistry, Srinakharinwirot University, who is interested in Ergonomics, Artificial neural network, Computational intelligence.

Siriwan Suebnukarn

Siriwan Suebnukarn, serves as Vice Rector for Research at Thammasat University, Thailand. Professor Suebnukarn’s background in Dentistry and Computer Science gives her a unique set of skills to tackle some important problems in Medical Informatics and Education. Her research work has included Artificial Intelligence in Education and User Modeling.