How hard is dentistry on the body?

[iceblue]

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How hard is dentistry on the body? Do dentists often deal with back pain, neck pain, wrist/hand pain? Elbow pain? etc... You get the idea. 😛

How common are dentists who have to stop their practice due to physical pain from dentistry?

Thanks in advance

 

[dds10]

How hard is dentistry on the body? Do dentists often deal with back pain, neck pain, wrist/hand pain? Elbow pain? etc... You get the idea. 😛

How common are dentists who have to stop their practice due to physical pain from dentistry?

Thanks in advance

I don't know how many that have stopped their practice but I've been told it is pretty hard on the body. Back, shoulder, neck pains are very common!

 

[sfrice80]

I've never heard of a dentist personally quitting his practice cuz of pains or issues relating to dentistry. In fact, the dentist that I shadowed for 2 years just recently switched to chair dentistry, he had done stand up dentistry all these years, hes about 55 years old and hes still doing great but everyone is different. The only dentist I heard of leaving his practice due to medical reasons is a dentist that interviewed me at Minnesota, he said he had to quit because he developed tremors, that would totally suck but now he teaches instead.

 

[Ostracized]

In the last two days I've had two different seminars on disabilty insurance (with free meals!). Insurance companies want to sells us a servce, but a dentist is only as good as his/her hands/wrists/eyes/nervous system etc.

So yeah, consider getting good insurance, even while in school.

 

[doc toothache]

The septua- octo- and nonagenarians you see at Walmart with kyphosis/or scoliosis are quite likely to be retired dentists.

 

[MnBucky]

i have no source to cite for this, but i was looking at some job ranking website and they took dentists out of the top 10 or 15 or whatever it was because of issues with back trouble and burn out

 

[juanatas84]

My mom became a dentist as the age of 25 and she had to quit her practice at the age of 38, because of Carpel Tunnel. She had two surgeries to try and fix it, but she was unable to practice dentistry.

On the other hand, I know of a dentist who is 77 years olds and he still has his practice of 51 years in Berkeley, CA. He was the one, who wrote me my LOR for D-School.

So it depends on each person, since we all are different. My mother had a short career, while other dentist might have a much longer career. I think the best advice is check out preventative steps as a dentist, that can be taken to reduce injury while on the job.

 

[zsmilez14]

apparently when you're in d-school they will teach you about correct posture during procedures in order to avoid back pain...