Comparison Of Various Conservative Treatment Modalities For Occupational Low Back Pain And Their Feasibility In Daily Dental Practice

This study investigates the efficacy of McKenzie‘s exercise protocol, Ergonomic recommendations or a combination of both with a control group in reducing low back pain due to job related stress amongst dentists. Forty subjects between the age group of 22 to 29 years were selected for this study. They were randomly allotted into three study groups and one control group, each consisting of ten subjects each. The study group I was advised to follow Ergonomic recommendations protocol, group II McKenzie‘s postural exercise protocol and group III was a comb ination of both protocols for reducing low back pain. The control group was not given any form of recommendations. The recommendations were followed for a period of 15 days. Pretest and post test pain values were determined from each subject by using Numeric pain rating (NRS) scale.The test values were evaluated and compared by t test. There was stastically significant difference among all the groups. All the groups showed significant decrease in pain except the control group in whom no intervention has taken place. This study shows the effective way to control occupational low back pain among dentists.