Most of us do not quite enjoy our periodic visits to the doctor as sympathy often lies fairly and squarely with the patient. However, what many people fail to appreciate is that these situations place considerable musculoskeletal demands on health professionals, such as dentists and surgeons while they are treating us in an attempt to improve the quality of our lives. The cause of this lies in the fact that, for a patient, medical visits typically involve sitting in a comfortable reclined position, while the dentist often has to bend to perform the oral work.

In the case of a surgeon, while the patient is usually unconscious or supine, the medical professional must contort their own body in order to perform the surgery. In fact, there exist vast similarities in the work of dentists and surgeons as both professions involve working in a standing posture and prolonged stooping over a reclined or supine patient. Besides, the similarities also involve the fact that a variety of hand equipments must be used by both professionals in a delicate manner. Both professions also involve working for extended periods of time, typically less than an hour per patient for a dentist and considerably longer than an hour for a surgeon.