Investing in Ergonomics: A Win for Hygienists, Dentists, and Patients

We know the climate out there, especially hygienists, we are hard to come by to find a good hygienist that really cares about not only the patients, but the growth of the practice and supporting the dentist. Dentists want to keep those. And so for me, I would rather have better equipment that is going to support me and my patients and the practice long term than I would a dollar or two more per hour. Welcome to the Phil Klein Dental Podcast. Today, we're diving into a topic that affects every dental professional's health, happiness, and career longevity, and that's ergonomics. And we're not just talking about posture and positioning. True ergonomics extends to the very tools we use every day in practice, from the chair we sit on to the ultrasonic scaler in our hands. Our guest, Caitlin Parsons, a registered dental hygienist, brings over 15 years of experience as a practicing hygienist, educator, and trainer. She'll share why it's so important to start the conversation with your employer about upgrading outdated equipment in the operatory, particularly in hygiene. From ultrasonic scalers with ergonomic handles and reduced vibration to simple operatory adjustments that make a big difference, Caitlin shows us how investing in ergonomics not only protects our bodies, but also enhances our performance, job satisfaction, and long-term clinical success. Before we bring in our guest, I do want to say that if you're enjoying these episodes and want to support the show, please follow us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You'll be the first to know about our new releases and our entire production team will really appreciate it. Caitlin, it's a pleasure to have you on the show. Yeah, thank you so much, Phil. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, we're very happy to have you on. And what's interesting is you refer to yourself as the aligned... hygienist so tell us why you coined that term for yourself both personally and professionally yeah that kind of came to fruition years after starting to do what i'm doing now but i've been a hygienist for 17 years at the beginning of my career experienced a lot of pain within one year of practicing as a hygienist and it brought me to a really low point hit burnout almost quit hygiene looked into alternative careers and then thankfully started my wellness journey and getting into yoga therapy and ergonomics, posture. And so the big part of the Aligned Hygienist is really representing alignment in dentistry. So for the most part, that is our posture, our positioning, our ergonomics, just taking care of ourselves. But it's also... mentally, right? It's so important when we're working with people to feel aligned, to feel present and balanced. And we all know in dentistry that that can be challenging, right? There's so many dynamics in the office with patients and it can feel really overwhelming. So aligned hygienist kind of has multiple meanings, but body, mind, energy being aligned so we can really deliver the best care that we can for our patients. Many of us that are listening to this podcast episode understand that pain and physical stress can certainly make your life miserable, which eventually can lead to burnout. But there's a high tendency for people, especially in the dental hygiene profession, that are not aware of their ergonomics. They have a high tendency to move down the path of burnout quicker. So connect the dots for us. Connect the physical stress of poor ergonomic behavior with earlier signs of burnout. Well, burnout can come from so many different things, but we know, I know from my own experience, and then we know just from science that when we are in pain, it takes a toll on us in so many different ways, right? It creates a ripple effect, really. So we are physically, we don't have as much energy. We're constantly thinking about our nagging shoulder or our low back during patient care in between when we're writing notes, when we go home at night. Instead of resting, we're trying to just recover and feel OK for the next day. So our our ergonomics are so important. So, yeah, I kind of shifted a little bit. But when we are in pain, it again not only affects us physically, but then we don't have as much focus for our patients. We don't have as much energy, as much drive. And that not only affects our patients and our patients care, but. We feel more stressed. We're more overwhelmed. We're less present for our patients. So it really, again, creates just a ripple effect throughout the office. Yeah. So how do you bring awareness to the problem, especially to the younger clinicians that are coming out? They have not yet experienced this kind of, you know, physical damage to their body because there are fresh, new... It's like a new athlete coming out on the football field. They don't have an injury. Maybe they have some high school injuries and some college injuries, but they're in the NFL now and they're ready to play and they're young and vibrant. How do you bring awareness to that hygienist that there is danger with, for instance, handpiece vibration, improper posture? And I know what inspired you to get involved because it actually affected you. And I don't know how much you're practicing now, but it certainly took a toll on you. How do you get that conversation going to dental professionals so that this becomes top of mind in their practice? Yeah, I'm really passionate about this, about just all dental professionals, not just hygienists. Dentists feel it too. Assistants feel it. Front office even are affected from sitting all day. And what's interesting is it's... It's definitely I'm seeing it in a lot of new grads that are coming out. But what's interesting is there is already that conversation. I mean, you just look in all these Facebook groups and everyone's talking about it. I'm in pain. What do I do? I have neck pain. I have this. I have that. So awareness is the first thing, but really starting slowly and like what. what can you do with your next patient? How can you find your neutral posture? Or how can you learn more about patient positioning or your positioning? So I usually for... If someone has something specific going on, we get to the root of, okay, is it your hand pain? Okay, what instruments are you using? What tools are you using as far as ultrasonics? What are your tips like? What is your posture and your positioning when you're in there? But it starts with awareness and really just small changes over time. We're here for the long haul, right? So how can we... over and over and over again, continue to make better choices when it comes to our own posture, our wellness, what are we doing inside of the op? And then also our ergonomics. What, again, instruments are we using? What equipment are we using? How are we minimizing the amount of strain put on our body? And so we can really just maximize the care that we're giving. And do you teach practices how to do this personally? I have. support dental professionals in multiple ways. So I'll support individual clinicians, dentists. I'm working with a dentist right now through one-on-one sessions or ergonomic assessments going into the office virtually or in person and, you know, readjusting all the things for that one individual. But what I really love to do is going into practices and doing it for the entire team. And front office needs it just as much and assistants need it just as much as dentists and hygienists do. But I think... when we go or when i go into an office everyone's kind of on the same page so they can continue supporting each other, holding each other accountable. And it's kind of a group knowledge rather than just one person trying to make changes. Now, do you think most dentists are interested in this for their team? In other words, let's say a dental practice has some old equipment in it. And let's just start off with the basic equipment like chairs, the patient chair, the operator chair, a new hygienist is hired, and they're in there. And there hasn't been an... one minute of discussion about anything with ergonomics. They just went over everything else in the office and they got their training and whatever they need to do. But do you find that dentists are just not focusing on the importance of the equipment that is present for that new hygienist to start working with? That's a really good question. I would say there's a wide variety of dentists out there. Some are just focused on... getting paid from insurance right, reimbursement and taking care of their patients and how can they keep building their practice of course and then I've worked with many dentists that they come to me. Maybe because their team is struggling and there's specific issues and they know they need improvements or they come to me because they're like, I want to keep my team healthy and happy. And so can I bring you in to support? So and really when I go in, yes, I'm going to recommend certain products or kind of tee it up for them, but I'm not going to go in and recommend. a whole new setup and renovation of the practice at the same time. So it's really finding like what little things can we make changes to for the individual and then in the room. Yeah. So for today's ultrasonic systems, you know, they've evolved a lot. I mean, certainly since I was in dental school. And some of the new features control the vibrations because we know vibration, and you'll talk about that today, how dangerous that can be over time. frequency, the ergonomic design of the handpiece, for instance. So how do those advancements impact patient care and add to your comfort over time? This is honestly something that I didn't focus on for a really long time. Vibration is one of the five main risk factors for dental professionals. So it is something that... we deal with all day, every day, especially as a hygienist, but even dentists as well. And so I always say, how can we reduce the amount of, reduce our risk and reduce the amount of vibration in this case? So I have used Piezo ultrasonic scalers. I have used Cavitrons. And I actually just moved to New Jersey a few months ago, started at a... a new practice for me we have a pretty old cavitron uh unit and really old metal tips and i started to notice that i would finish with a patient and i would still feel vibration in my hand i noticed my left shoulder was starting i'm left-handed so my left shoulder was starting to bother me again with my cavitron and the not the tips that aren't great i'm feeling way more vibration to my hand so feeling more vibration i'm gonna feel it's gonna be less tactile sensitivity which might affect the patient, but that also makes it harder for me to do my job thoroughly, right? And I recently used the new Neutron from Action. It is a wider handle, so I don't have to grip quite as hard as I do with my Cavitron tip and unit. And then with that, I'm just feeling less vibration and I don't notice the after effects at all. Now, do you think it's because the unit that you were using in the office is old? And Cavitron has improved on that? Or do you think that the piezo technology just generally has less vibration? I think part of it is definitely older tips in an older unit. And that is a big test to that, having good tips no matter what unit you have. However, I know that the handle with the new ultrasonic unit I have is... a world of difference compared to the other one and again it's just less grip less force that i'm putting on my body which i'm doing an ultrasonic most or 20 minutes during the appointment for for a lot of patients so um i think it's a little bit of both in my case but again anytime we can reduce that risk of vibration especially for something that we're using for a majority of the day we want to we want to find those and that's the Action Neutron, it's called? Yeah, it's the Neutron, yep. And what's cool is that it automatically, you can adjust the settings for it for specific patients, for patients that might be more sensitive, for patients that might have more buildup. Because for a patient that's more sensitive, we want a little bit lower frequency, right? And we're going to have less vibration. So try to give me an example of what kind of conversation. somebody could have a dental hygienist could have with their boss. So they're sitting with their either their office manager, or even the dentist that owns the practice. And someone like you, you moved to New Jersey, you're now working in the office, you've had a history of problems physically from working as a hygienist, partly due to the vibration of the instruments that you've been using. And you studied this further and you're at the point now where, you know, you really don't want to go back down that path and you want to be able to work in an environment where you have longevity with your career and you're happy. What kind of conversation, if I was a dentist, would you say to me, very early on, let's say you just started working there a week or two and you want to get something like a piezo technology. where it works with less vibration, for instance, the action system, what would you do or specifically say to get that to happen? That's a really, really good question and something that I get asked about a lot. I come from the mentality that I want to invest in my health and my well-being as much as I want to work for someone that will also do the same. Knowing I'm a great employee, I show up for my patients, I'm helping support the practice. So with that said, this actually came up with my doctor because once I started using the Neutron, I was just raving about it. And that conversation was a little bit easier because I was able to show one versus the other and have her feel it for herself. But one of the most important things is doing your research, making sure that you have an idea. If I'm a hygienist, I know the price range I'm asking for. I know all of the details. Maybe I have some of the science written out and I'm prepared for. to have this conversation but i'll also set up a meeting so it's not just a i'm not giving passive aggressive you know comments to the doctor i just let's have a conversation here's what i'm noticing here's what i've looked into um i mean we know the climate out there especially hygienists we are hard to come by to find a good hygienist that really cares about not only the patients but the growth of the practice and supporting the dentist dentists want to keep those. And so for me, I would rather have better equipment that is going to support me and my patients and the practice long term than I would a dollar or two more per hour. So it's just having the tough conversation. And you know, everyone's going to be different. But yeah, no, I think you're 100% correct about supply and demand. I mean, there is a shortage of staff people that especially hygienists and assistants that that are needed on a dental team. have someone good, they're being sought after by other offices. So it's certainly to the best interest of the dental practice owner to hold on to that person. And by purchasing something that might make their life better, it seems to me a very reasonable step to hold on to that person as long as you like them. What are some of the other things that dental team members can do with each other to help each other maintain good ergonomics? Because I've heard on previous podcasts with some other ergonomic specialists that they should take pictures of each other, photos while they're working and say, hey, I took, you know, four snapshots of you while you were doing Mrs. Smith this morning. Take a look at this. You know, stuff like that. Is there things they could do without having an expert like you? Not that they shouldn't have you come in eventually, but in between visits from experts and consultants that they can maintain their ergonomics. What are some of the things a team could do? Yeah, that's that's a great question there. I mean, you said the photos and videos. I think that's one of the most valuable things because we might think that we have great posture or at the beginning of the week, the beginning of the day, we're feeling really good. And then it starts to slow down a little bit when we get tired. And that's when we get rounded backs. We get a little more lazy. So having team members that can. show you what you're doing in your body's position can be super informative because the more that we have an awareness of our posture or what needs to change, the more that we can make changes, right? But even things like stretches in the morning, if we have a morning huddle, can we take a breath together? Can we do 30 seconds of different stretches? Maybe you do one every day or a couple different ones, but that's for the whole team. And again, And it's for our physical well-being, but it's also helping our mental state. We're becoming more present, more... more balanced, more focused in our body as well. I mean, even just taking CEs on it, whether there's so many places that offer continuing education for us. So taking those and then bringing it back to the office. I have an ergonomic, a free guide that's an ergonomic checklist. So as a team, you could print it out. You could go through your operatories and just one operatory at a time or one clinician at a time, just slowly notice one thing at a time and make adjustments. and doing it together, I think you have more perspective in there. Let me ask you this. You know, in today's world of physical fitness, with the machines and the trainers, it's become very specific. They could tailor programs for you in physical fitness that actually help you based on your age, based on your profession, what you're doing. I don't know if this exists or not, but is there something... related to dental hygiene or even dentistry for the actual practicing dentist, where certain exercises with limited time, because none of us have a ton of time, we're all so busy, where you could focus on particular exercise routines that are designed specifically for preventing injuries that we know would be coming down the road if they weren't attended to. That's a good question too. Don't know anything like workout related. As a yoga therapist, I have an on-demand membership program with a ton of different classes on there. And some of them are really short and sweet. Some of them are just for doing in the office. Like you have two minutes. Here's some practices you can do. I know there are a few of us that are more wellness focused in dentistry that are offering that. I don't know about anything that is just for dentistry that goes for specific areas of the body outside of what I've created. I mean, I think we're all on the same page here. You know, stay fit, stay flexible, stay healthy by eating well and try to develop good ergonomic habits so that you minimize injury. But if you do stray... from the right path ergonomically, which we all do occasionally, some of us more than others. If you're physically fit and strong, you will probably mitigate the severity of your injury. I would assume the strength of your body will slow down any negativity that could be developing in your body due to bad ergonomic habits. Yeah, and there's less recovery time if we're continuously taking care of ourselves, right? I really think it is a balance of stretching and releasing tension and also strengthening and stabilizing the body because in order to have good posture, especially when so many of us are sitting for most of the day, we have to be doing things that are rebalancing our body from that seated position all day, which includes, again, releasing tension through certain muscles and then reestablishing establishing strength, stability in other areas of the body. Yeah. One of the things that really would concern me if I was a dental hygienist is the repetitiveness of the motion that you guys are dealing with on a daily basis. The repetitive stress syndrome that I think that's the terminology for it or something like that. Tell us about that repetitive damage. that could cause carpal tunnel syndrome and things like that. Because, you know, let's face it, a lot of the motion that's going through your musculoskeletal system down at the level of the instrument is very repetitive, is it not? Yeah, absolutely. I had a few patients the other day that requested strongly not to do the ultrasonic, and I felt it in my hand just at the end of the day. repetitive strain is really common in dentistry but especially as dental hygienists because again we're doing a lot of the same movements a lot of the just the same nature of appointments throughout the day and that adds up over time so let's we can use the chicken wing for instance but that creates that's like a breakdown in the the tissue lack of strength and then again the more we're doing it the less blood flow, the less circulation is moving through there. We know we need blood flow and circulation for healing. So we're not getting that. And that just, again, it adds up over and over. So what can we do to A, reposition ourself to reduce the strain, but what can we use in the office to set ourselves up for success to reduce that strain as well? And that leads right into my next question. What are some of the things that are out there right now that are specifically designed for a hygienist and or a dentist to work in a more wellness-centered environment, which takes in consideration repetitive strain syndrome and career comfort and longevity? What are some of the things that we should be looking at? Yeah. I mean, even when we look at, this isn't just dental hygiene related, but saddle stools, ergonomic loops that allow us to practice upright instead of looking down all day. One really simple but powerful and effective tool is, I don't know if you've heard of it, it's called Cordies. It's literally a bracelet that goes around your wrist and it holds your cords. So especially for hygienists that are either using ultrasonic units, hand pieces regularly, even suction devices, it can hold that cord because Some cords are really heavy. Some are really long and we end up holding the rest of the cord in our pinky or under our arm or all these weird things, which again, adds more strain. So those are simple ones, but things like we talked about before, ultrasonic units, new neutron that's reducing the amount of vibration, better hand piece positioning and alignment for our hand, reducing the strain. I really think technology is going to continue to advance and it has to in order for us to feel good long-term in dentistry. Yeah, no, I think that's well said. And what about sharp instruments? Yeah, thank you for saying that. Instruments are a huge one as well. There's multiple companies out there that make hygiene instruments. There's a couple that really care about the ergonomics and how the instrument is actually made. And that makes such a big difference. But they're also coming out with new instruments with all of the like sharpen free instruments now. I think, yes, every hygienist should have and maintain sharp instruments. And we also know the nature of dentistry, that it can be really challenging to have the time to actually sharpen your instruments. But prioritizing that is so important. But I just got an email earlier about a new ergonomic probe that is coming out that has a better handle and it's easier for us to use. So things like that. Anything that we can do to support better patient care and reduce strain on our body. For those of us who do not like sharpening instruments, what are some of the options that we have? Yeah, there's sharpen free technology, which I've used a couple of the brands out there. I like them, but you do have to either some of them you can retip. So ditch the old tip, get a new one for it that I'm a little less passionate about. But I also, as a hygienist, I do not like sharpening, but I do it because I know that if I have sharp instruments, it makes. A, it's better for the patient and reducing burnout of calculus, all of that, but it also reduces strain drastically on me. That is actually one of the things that when I came to this new office, I advocated for because the instruments were... terrible. And that was my non-negotiable coming into the practice. I don't need a ton of new instruments, but these are the three or four that I need in every cassette in order to work here and do my job well. What's a good instrument company? Could you recommend a couple? Paradise Dental Technology, PDT. They are... a great company great quality instruments but that truly care about dentistry in general but the health and well-being of dental professionals they collaborate with different hygienists or even dentists to create new instruments that make our job easier so they're in montana that company yeah okay i know the owner she's like She climbs mountains. She's great. I was going to say that what I love about PDT is they not only care about us as professionals and create great instruments, but they walk the talk. They have a, I don't know if it's an alarm, but like say an alarm that goes off for their employees every hour that they get up and stretch together, or they bring in wellness professionals to support their team, which I think is just really cool. I've used for sharpen free. American Eagle from Young has a good lineup. And then there's other ones out there. There's a newer technology. I think it's called ErgoFlex for specifically dental hygienists that are in pain that the instrument literally flexes around your hand to reduce the amount of, again, wear on the practitioner. Very cool, very cool. Really appreciate your time. We certainly would love to have you on Viva Learning more often as you explore more. solutions for dental hygienists to make their day more gentle and less stressful not only physically but also mentally that's so important and we're talking to the aligned hygienist Caitlin Parsons, thank you so much have a great day thank you thank you