Knowledge of Workplace Postural Requirements Among Private Dental Practitioners

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the basic postural requirements for dental professionals during routine patient care and to assess significant differences in the knowledge of postural requirements with demographic characteristics and clinical experience. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among Indian private dental practitioners with a clinical experience (CE > 1-year). They were invited to participate via WhatsApp through based practice networks. We collected data related to age, sex, educational qualification, and CE. The postural requirements questionnaire was adapted from Garbin et al which has 8 items. The total knowledge score of the postural requirements questionnaire was obtained and categorized as “inadequate (1-2), regular (3-4), satisfactory (5-7), and excellent (8)”. A Chi-square test and Binary logistic regression was done to compare the knowledge of postural requirements with demographic variables and CE. Results: A total of 383 dental practitioners participated in this online survey, out of which 59.5% were females and mean age was 30.73. More than 1/3rd of the practitioners had an excellent level of knowledge regarding the postural requirements. The majority of the practitioners had satisfactory levels of knowledge. Only 6.8% had inadequate/regular knowledge. Bivariate analysis showed that significantly higher numbers of female dental practitioners (37.3%) showed excellent scores than males (27.1%) (P=0.038). Binary logistic regression showed that females were 1.6 times more likely to have excellent total knowledge scores (OR: 1.6). Conclusion: Our survey showed that more than 1/3rd of private dental practitioners had excellent knowledge of postural requirements.