Abstract
The purposes of this study were to investigate the relationships between the degree of physical pain and the knowledge and preventive actions of musculoskeletal diseases among dental hygiene students with a potential risk of contracting those diseases and thus to help them prevent them. A survey was taken among 207 sophomores and juniors specializing in dental hygiene at S1 and S2, Gyeonggi Province in the area of physical pain, knowledge of musculoskeletal diseases, and preventive actions against them. The findings were as follows: 1. The mean scores of the sophomore in the knowledge of musculoskeletal diseases were $6.20{\pm}2.21$, and those of the juniors were $6.72{\pm}2.29$. The mean scores of the sophomores and juniors in the preventive actions against musculoskeletal diseases were $22.50{\pm}2.37$ and $22.29{\pm}3.01$, respectively. 2. The subjects displayed severe physical pain in the lower back, shoulder, and neck in the descending order and medium physical pain in the neck, shoulder, and lower back in the descending order. 3. The higher level knowledge of musculoskeletal diseases they had, the less physical pain they felt. And there were significant differences among the shoulder, lower back, hip, ankle, and foot. 4. There were relationships between physical pain and the preventive actions against musculoskeletal diseases in "placing the hands at the height of the elbows during treatment", "reducing such positions as bending and extending during treatment", "narrowing the distance with the patient", "taking regular breaks during treatment for recovery", "trying not to incline the neck, back, arm, and wrist as much as possible", and "trying to keep the torso in the neutral position." 5. As for the education about musculoskeletal diseases, 74 sophomores(88.10%) and 102 juniors(89.74%) answered they received no such education. The results suggest that there should be some instructions to help dental hygiene students practice the preventive actions against musculoskeletal diseases and further prevention programs against those diseases.
