The risk of carpal tunnel syndrome has been studied in various work fields such as office typists. However, little research has been done on the effect that holding a dental instrument has on the musculoskeletal system of dentists and hygienists. That is why it was so intriguing to find an article called, "The effects of periodontal instrument handle design on hand muscle load and pinch force" in The Journal of The American Dental Association.

The article went over a test which was performed on a group of 24 dentists and 10 dental hygienists. Sensors measured the amount of muscle activity and thumb pinch force on the participants' hands while they used dental instruments of various sizes. Each dental instrument was designed with a specific handle diameter and weight.

The result of the dental instrument study will not come as a surprise to anyone in the dentistry profession. Dental instruments which had wider handles but lighter weights were less stressful on the hand in terms of muscle load and pinch force. However, there was one surprising factor: a dental instrument with a larger handle diameter was only less stressful up to 10 mm. After this diameter, no reduced stress was shown.

Most dental instrument designs are not made in a way which helps abate the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, carpal tunnel syndrome being the most notorious of them. In fact, dentists are particularly at risk because a dental instrument requires pressure to be applied over thin handles. Unfortunately, some of the issues around dental instrument design are almost impossible to fix because the tools must be streamlined to fit into the tight spaces of a patient's mouth. Additionally, tools which vibrate cause a higher risk of CTS.

According to the JADA article, the dentistry tasks of periodontal scaling and root planning contain an even higher risk of CTS because these tasks require more pinch force as well as often require awkward hand positions.

The article went on to explain how little information there is about ergonomic dentistry tools. Even though the risk of musculoskeletal disorders is incredibly high for dentistry professionals, there has been hardly any research on how to reduce this risk. Dentists are by far not the only ones in the medical field that face this risk either as surgeons and other MDs also use hand tools which require proper force control and extreme precision.

There are a few dental instrument designers which are tackling the issue, however. One of them is the Korean group Osung which makes a full line of dental tools with silicone handles. What makes silicone ideal for a dental instrument is that it is incredibly lightweight, even more so than the light-weight metals used in high-quality dental tools. Additionally, the silicon is soft to grip. This allows a dentist or hygienist to apply amply force onto the dental instrument but without so much strain because the silicone absorbs some of the pinch force. The JADA article test was performed with Hu-Friedy Gracey curettes. It would be interesting to see what the difference would be if the test was performed with the silicone handled dental instruments from Osung.