Dental Students Versus Dentists' Professional Pain and Coping Strategies: Does Dental Education Matter?

Dentists are at risk of developing musculoskeletal pain (MP) during their professional lives. The objectives were to compare dental students' and dentists' professional pain-related education, current professional pain, coping strategies, and evaluations of ways to alleviate pain. Relationships between pain education, pain, coping strategies, and evaluations of ways to alleviate pain were also explored.

Four hundred thirty-three first- to fourth-year dental students and 133 members of the American Dental Association responded to an anonymous survey.

Students responded more positively than dentists that their dental school education had educated them well about preventing MP (5-point scale with 5 = most positive: means: 3.36 vs. 2.56; p < 0.001), having a good posture when treating patients (3.65 vs. 3.30; p < 0.001) and having proper ergonomics in the clinics (3.61 vs. 3.22; p < 0.001). Both groups disagreed/neither disagreed nor agreed that they were satisfied with their education about coping with MP (2.75 vs. 2.67; p = 0.242). Students were more concerned about developing chronic pain over the course of their professional life (4.25 vs. 3.83; p < 0.001) than dentists. The two groups did not differ in the degree of MP in their hands/wrists (6-point scale with 1 = no pain: 1.93 vs. 1.98; p = 0.328). However, students reported less pain in their neck (2.48 vs. 2.81; p = 0.008), back (2.62 vs. 2.95; p = 0.011), and shoulders (2.30 vs. 2.68; p = 0.003) than dentists. Students took more breaks during the day (mean on a 5-point scale with 5 = very often: 2.26 vs. 1.63; p < 0.001) and lost more time from work because of pain (1.77 vs. 1.28; p < 0.001) than dentists. Dentists were more likely to stretch (3.29 vs. 2.87; p < 0.001) and see a chiropractor (1.66 vs. 1.30; p < 0.001) than students. More dentists used over-the-counter drugs (56.5% vs. 44.3%; p = 0.015) than students. The more pain-related education the respondents had, the more attention they paid to proper ergonomics (r = 0.34; p < 0.001) and the less current pain they reported (r = -0.24; p < 0.01).

Dental students report more professional pain and are more concerned about pain than dentists. This should alert dental educators to the importance of addressing this topic in classroom-based settings, and especially in pre-clinical and clinical settings. Educating students about successful non-pharmacological ways to prevent and manage professional pain during their dental education is crucial.