| dc.description.abstract | Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is a collection of sensory, vascular, and musculoskeletal symptoms potentially experienced by workers with jobs involving repetitive use of vibrating tools. The use of vibrating equipment in dental practices, such as ultrasonic scalers and dental burs, repeatedly and over long periods can cause negative impacts on dentists' health, especially related to HAVS. This research aims to determine the relationships of characteristics, namely age, sex, years of service, smoking behaviour, and working hours, with subjective complaints of hand-arm vibration syndrome in dentists at the Dental and Oral Hospital of Universitas Sumatera Utara (RSGM USU). This research is quantitative with a cross-sectional approach. The results showed that 18 dentists (30.5%) were categorised as having subjective complaints of HAVS and 41 dentists (69.5%) were categorised as not having subjective complaints of HAVS. The results of bivariate analysis using chi-square tests showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between working hours (p-value = 0.025) and subjective complaints of HAVS in RSGM USU dentists, while there was no statistically significant relationship between other independent variables, namely age, sex, years of service, smoking behaviour, and subjective complaints of HAVS in RSGM USU dentists. The most experienced type of HAVS subjective complaint was tingling in the fingers and palms, with 30 dentists (50.8%) experiencing this type of subjective complaint, while the least experienced type of HAVS subjective complaint was a stabbing feeling in the palm, with only one dentist (1.7%) experiencing this type of subjective complaint. The dentists at RSGM USU are advised to rest their hands and arms from using vibrating equipment in dental practice for ten minutes every hour to reduce vibration exposure, always use gloves as PPE against vibration exposure in their practice, and conduct regular health checks to detect and prevent HAVS early on | en_US |
