Changes in dental hygiene students' working posture following digital sound feedback.

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed to observe changes in working posture by measuring the REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) score of dental hygiene students according to digital sound feedback linked with a smartphone application.

METHODS

This study was conducted on 28 fourth-year dental hygiene students who received theoretical and practical training on dental posture in the second year and then practised on mannequins and patients for about four semesters. Periodontal instrumentation was performed freely by applying digital sound notification feedback for four weeks after baseline, 30 minutes per week. REBA was measured after performing periodic structure construction without providing digital sound notification feedback for the last 1-2 minutes. Follow-up was conducted the same way 2-3 weeks after the intervention period.

RESULTS

The REBA score for total, neck and trunk of all subjects showed statistically significant decreases post-intervention compared with the baseline scores (total p < .001, neck p < .001 and trunk p = .042).

CONCLUSIONS

A digital sound feedback system was shown to be effective in encouraging correct working posture in dental hygiene students by helping them improve their REBA scores.