Dental News - RGP Dental says, ‘You sit… we fit’ about its dental chairs and stools

Robin Goodman, DTA

Thu. 3 December 2009

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NEW YORK, NY, USA: How important is the chair you’re sitting on compared to the instruments in your hand? The short answer is: very important. When you consider that research says some 85 per cent of dental professionals suffer from discomfort or pain associated with a musculoskeletal disorder, you might want to rethink the false notion that all dental chairs are created equal. In addition, 30 per cent of dental professionals retire early due to musculoskeletal injury.

Those who attended the recent Greater New York Dental Meeting (GNYDM) were able to visit the booth of RGP Dental to see what truly ergonomic seating feels like. When RGP Dental appeared on the U.S. market in 1996, basic dental seating was very expensive, and there were no truly ergonomic options compared to what was available in Europe.

RGP Dental President David Solomon spent five years in Europe, working in the dental stools industry, yet he boasts nearly 20 years in the area of ergonomic seating in the dental industry.

Today, RGP Dental specializes in dental stools and chairs that help lessen or eliminate the four risk factors that contribute the most to musculoskeletal disorders: repetition, force, mechanical stress and posture.

“When you sit in a static position, you create inflammation in your muscles, which can lead to injury. The ‘active seating’ our chairs offer helps to increase blood flow, and this increases cellular respiration in order to refresh the blood,” Solomon told Dental Tribune during an interview at the GNYDM.

Active seating means that you are not sitting passively, but are engaging some muscles to hold your seating position. For example, the backrest on RGP Dental’s 400-D chair is easily adjusted to fit perfectly into the small of anyone’s back (it’s called the lordosis curve).

When the lever on the chair is engaged, the backrest presses against your back and forces you to press on it in return, which actively engages the core muscles of your body. Your back is fully supported no matter what angle it takes.

Once engaged, the backrest does not lock you into any one position as it moves with you when you do. When disengaged, the backrest is in a locked position that does not actively apply pressure to your back, which is necessary for some procedures.

With every purchase during the New York meeting, RGP Dental donated one Lifestraw to Cambodia. The Lifestraw hangs around a person’s neck and allows him or her to drink dirty water because it filters out 99.99 per cent of the bacteria and 98.5 per cent of viruses.

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