Ergonomic evaluation of lighting from dental school clinics: a cross-sectional study

Ergonomics is the science that studies the relation of the human being to the work, trying to develop a perfect integration between the conditions of the environment, the capacities and physical and psychological limitations of the worker and the efficiency of the productive system. Its purpose is to increase human efficiency through logical decisions. In this sense, ergonomics acts in the removal of negative aspects of the work that in the long run can cause inefficiencies or the most varied types of physical incapacities.1 The difficulty in establishing a balance in the work-machine-environment trinomial has pointed to dentists as individuals vulnerable to occupational hazards. The Ergonomics applied to Dentistry has a fundamental role for the success of the actions developed during the dental care. Its objectives are: to rationalize work; eliminate non-productive steps; produce more and better; provide greater comfort and safety to the patient; obtain means and systems to reduce physical and cognitive stress; and prevent diseases related to dental practice, thus seeking a more expressive productivity.2 In this context, the ergonomic parameters related to the environment appear as decisive in maintaining the balance in dental work. In dentistry, lighting should be as appropriate as possible to ensure safety and health for the dental surgeon, since this professional belongs to a class that is at risk of eye trauma. This is due to the fact that, during his work, to fix the look in small details for a prolonged time, analogous problem of the typists. Consequently, you may blink less and get your eyes dry and burning, an injury called ciliary musculature spasm.3 Dental work requires motor coordination, reasoning, discernment, patience, safety, skill, delicacy, firmness and objectivity. Activities that together require a lot of the professional. In this way, adequate environmental parameters can make a difference in the performance of the work activities in a comfortable way and with the minimum of damages to the worker’s body.1 In the scientific literature on the ergonomic parameters of the environment, studies that analyze the dental clinic are few. Thus, there is a need to carry out a study to evaluate this data in the workplace of the dentist, in order to identify and solve possible flaws. The present study evaluated the ergonomic parameters of illuminance of the school dental clinics of a Brazilian University.