Os alunos canhotos do curso de Odontologia da UFU: Perfil, dificuldades, dores osteomusculares e postura corporal na prática laboratorial e clínica

Abstract

Introduction: Left-handed individuals need to adapt to these tools to carry out their daily activities, in dental practice difficulties are also present, mainly due to the lack of specific equipment that can reflect on body wear. Objectives: to identify left-handed students from the Dentistry course at the Federal University of Uberlândia and their perception of the difficulties faced during activities, in addition to identifying their difficulties, complaints and sites of musculoskeletal pain in laboratory and clinical activities. Methods: 24 left handed students enrolled in 2020 were included. Questionnaires were applied online to collect student data. Results: They were tabulated and as results, it was found that left handed people represent 5.6% of the total of students in the Dentistry course, most are women (66.7%), with an average age of 21 years. The second period was the one with the highest number of left-handers (25%). Of the practical activities of the course, these were attended by 91.7% of respondents, who reported using their left hand more frequently (62.5%), sitting in the 1-hour position (20.8%) and having greater difficulty in treat the right upper quadrant (45.8%). The most cited sites of musculoskeletal pain after performing these activities were: wrists and hands (62.5%), lower back (62.5%) and neck (58.3%). Conclusion: Left-handers represent a minority of students, and their difficulties are the lack of adequate physical structure and the lack of understanding of the surrounding people. Regarding complaints of pain or discomfort, hands, wrists, lower back and neck were the most mentioned members in the study.