Occupational changes in manual tactile sensibility of the dentist

The aim of this study was to find out if the use of vibrating tools (drill, ultrasonic scaler ...) in dental practice has negative side effects on the manual tactile sensibility of the dentist. The sensory tests were performed on 50 subjects, who were allocated to three different groups according to their occupation and the length of their working experience. The first test group consisted of 20 dentists, who had more than 25 years of work experience. As a control group, 20 non-dentists were recruited to obtain a similar age distribution as the former test group. A final group consisted of 10 dentists with more than 1 year of work experience. All subjects underwent three tests: light-touch sensation test, two-point discrimination test and thermal sensation test on the thumb and the index finger of the working and non-working hands. Results showed significant differences, especially for the light-touch sensation test. The study showed more specifically that the tactile sensibility of the working hand of the dentists with more than 25 years of work experience was significantly diminished with respect to the non-working hand and to the working hand of non-dentists. In the test group of young dentists, there was no noticeable reduction of manual tactile sensibility.