Dental story online

Few months ago, I met an instructor of a dental hygiene program. Her school is known and favorite surrounded by students. The school is often referred to as a futuristic playground for dental hygiene students, and the instructor understandably is very proud of the reputation.

It was a communal gathering; the seminar took a turn on to the need of binocular loupes for dental hygiene students. It is always bright to hear the point of view of those complex in formal scholastic settings, as magnification loupes is thought about controversial by many in the scholastic setting.

Dental Story

While she acknowledged that dental loupes might be useful at the older age, she no ifs ands or buts argued aggressively that her students did not need these costly devices since they did not need optical enhancement.

Loupes do improve the clinical image, but this is not the only think why dental hygiene students wear the loupes was my argument.

I asked her to explain; why is that studies show recurring evidence of dental hygienists complaining about neck and shoulder pain and why one out of five dental hygienists give up their work early.

The write back is clear.

Dental hygienists also put long hours performing their procedures. Each sitting with a patient is ½ hour to 1 hour long. This no ifs ands or buts puts strain on shoulders, neck, back and eye nerves. At the young age we do not feel this strain as our body is strong and can no ifs ands or buts withstand it. Constant strain on these parts moderately takes its toll and symptoms come to be graphic at the later part of one's career. As bodies get weaker and capability of sitting for long hours gets reduced, dental hygienists are forced to give up their career.

Visual enhancement does help while assessments in probe reading, tissue characteristics, etc; but the most important think to wear a loupe is to cut the risk of developing musculoskeletal problems.

Does having loupes solve musculoskeletal problems for every dental hygienist, she immediately argued.

No they will not, was my reply, and then I further explained, dental loupes are plainly a tool and as with every tool, dental loupes can only help you if

• You are using it on regular basis
• You selected a capability loupe correctly matching to your needs.

A loupe does not directly cut the risk of musculoskeletal problems, it is your literal, posture which reduces the strain on your back, neck and shoulder nerves and thereby reduces the risk of developing musculoskeletal problems at later stage. Loupes can help you articulate your literal, posture.

What about exercises, they can also cut the risk of such physical pain, she asked.

No one can deny the significance of exercises, but one has to understand that exercises are reducing the effects of strain on your body, whereas literal, posture reduces the strain itself. They both are complementary and should be part of every dental expert practice. We, as part of Stac schooling Series developed special yoga exercises for dental hygienists but the exercises do not cut the significance of having literal, posture.

How can loupes help articulate the literal, posture, was her next question.

The key is working length and depth of view. Every loupe has a fixed working length and a small range within which image remains focused and this range is called depth of view.

Let's take an example. Hygienist A has the habit of leaning over the patients while performing a procedure. The length between her eyes and the mouth of the patient is commonly 325-350mm. With the literal, posture of her body, the ideal length is 420mm. She buys a binocular loupe with 420 working length and let's further assume the depth of view for that loupe is 50mm. As it happens with every dental professional, when you are cautious you try to articulate your literal, posture but as you get absorbed into your procedure, you unconsciously form the posture what you are habitual off. Hygienist A, who has the habit of leaning closer to patient, when starts wearing a loupe with a working length of 420. As she bends her image will come to be blurry when her length reduces to lower than 370mm. She will immediately lean backward to her literal, posture. This will moderately convert her habit.

Therefore a correctly chosen loupe not only maintains your posture it can convert your incorrect posture habit.

There is other aspect one has to understand. Any damage on the body parts is irreversible. Therefore, it is equally important to create and articulate the habit of literal, posture and the habit of doing the right kind of exercises ordinarily at the young age itself. Therefore it is our responsibility to by comparison and supply dental students the suitable set of tools.

After much encouragement she agreed to wear the loupe for a month to feel the effect.

I visited her school the next day and helped her too find her literal, working distance. I gave her Stac 3.0x Flip Up Loupe with 420mm working distance. After a month she met me with a changed opinion. As she promised, she used her Stac Loupe every day while last month. She feels comfortable and less strained; she admitted that she does not feel any heaviness in her back, shoulder or neck area and her frequency of headaches also was reduced. She feels she cannot live without her Stac Loupe.

I asked to convey her first hand contact to her class also. It is critical that every profession begin to take responsibility for their physical well-being. The leadership has to come from you as an instructor.

The rest is plainly a story of her arranging the presentation in the class, students followed her as an example and today every pupil in her class got their own loupe. She encourages them every day to make it a habit of wearing the loupe in every custom session.

Dental Loupe is a Tool

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