2024, Vol. 11, Issue 4, Part G

Background: A reduction in hamstring flexibility and lumbar spine mobility can be induced by a lack of regular exercise and difficult postures exposed at work due to an individual's profession. It can also be expressed as a result of incorrect posture during dental practice, which can be corrected by performing frequent exercises. Reduced hamstring flexibility leads to decreased lumbar spine mobility, which can be a contributing reason to low back pain and lumbar degeneration

Introduction: Dental professions require constant static posture due to which they are at a risk of hamstring tightness which further adversely affects lumbar spine mobility which leads to lower back pain, bad posture, imbalances of muscles, and knee pain. There have been many ideologies regarding the presence of hamstring flexibility in various professions but due to lack of study regarding the prevalence of hamstring flexibility and lumbar spine mobility in dental professions, this research is being conducted in order to evaluate if reduced hamstring flexibility affects lumbar spine mobility in dentists whose job protocol involves prolonged sitting.

Methodology: The study was conducted in a Rural Dental College and Hospital for the dental practitioners who have work experience of 2 or more than 2 years as per inclusion criteria. Convenient sampling was done for 50 individuals. The hamstring flexibility was measured using the Finger to Toe test and lumbar spine mobility was measured using Schober’s test.

Result: It is observational type of descriptive study, there were 50 participants in this study (34 females and 16 males, average age = 28.78 (SD = 6.39) years, average years of experience = 5.42 (SD = 4.84)), average BMI =23.8 (SD =3.33), average finger to toe test score = 11.34 (SD = 9.12) and average Schober’s test score = 4.54 (SD = 0.67 were documented. To assess hamstring flexibility, finger to toe test was used and to assess lumbar spine mobility, Schober’s test was used. It was found that reduced hamstring flexibility leads to decrease in lumbar spine mobility. Also, no association was found between years of experience with hamstring flexibility and lumbar spine mobility.

Conclusion: The study concluded that a strong negative correlation was found between hamstring flexibility and lumbar flexion range of motion. It was discovered that reduced hamstring flexibility can result in reduced lumbar spine range of motion in dental professionals.