Left-handedness in dental undergraduates and orthodontic specialists

A questionnaire was devised involving a group of dental students (n = 70) and a group comprising all consultant orthodontists in the UK (n = 170) to investigate the prevalence and role of handedness in dental specialisation. Subjects were classified as being pure left-, mixed- or pure right-handed according to responses to a hand preference questionnaire and the results were compared with a very similar previous study of the general population. The prevalence of sinistrality (self-classified by writing) was recorded as 8.6% among dental students and 17.2% amongst orthodontists; this compares with 7.4% among the general population. More mixed-handers presented in both the dental groups compared to the general population. This agreed with the right shift theory of laterality. No significant correlation was noted between handedness and any other variable between the two dental groups.