Dis hekimlerinde servikal ergonomik bozukluklarn kakelet te degerlendirmesinde sanal gerçeklik tekniklerinin uygulanması

The aim of this study was to examine the virtual reality applications in the clinical, physical and functional assessment of neck pain - musculoskeletal disorders (NP-MSDs) among dentists. Particularly, to investigate the use of a suggested VR system in quantifying the degree of deviation from neutral head position "head postural alignment", normal neck movements "range of movement", time and neck movements degree with pain and without pain among dentists. A sample of 40 dentists with neck pain (20F, 20M; 39.70 ± 9.53 years) from Yeditepe University Faculty of Health Sciences participated in this study. A single evaluation was given to the participants. A structured questionnaire was used to record the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. The neck disability index was used to determine the functional levels of the neck. Head alignment, angular distance, time, speed, degree with pain and without pain of all cervical movements were measured by a virtual reality headset, while muscle strength of major neck movements was measured by a digital handheld dynamometer. The independent factors were age categories, gender, and exercise habits. The clinical parameters of degrees with pain, the physical parameters of neck range of motion and muscle strength, and the functional parameters in the neck disability index scale were all dependent variables in the study. There was a significant difference in BMI with all independent variables. There was no significant effect of age categories, gender, and exercise habits on clinical, physical and functional parameters of neck health among dentists, except there was a significant difference in strength favoring males and in the total neck disability index which was higher in the older age group. There were a positive correlation between work experience with pain intensity, body mass index categories and neck disability index categories, while negative with the exercise duration. Pain intensity and neck disability index categories were inextricably linked. And there was a negative correlation between body mass index categories with exercise habits and exercise duration. The strongest independent predictive parameters calculated by virtual reality for neck movements, were the neck left side flexion: degrees with pain, the neck flexion time and head posture: X, which predicted the clinical, physical, postural, and functional health among dentists. In conclusion, virtual reality can predict and measure the head alignment, normal neck movements "range of movement", time and degree with pain and without pain, to assess various cervical musculoskeletal disorders. Keywords: dentists, cervical pain, virtual reality, clinical, physical, postural, functional, assessment