ABSTRACT Background: work-related musculoskeletal disorders represent an important occupational health issues among dentists especially neck and low back complaints. Biomarkers of tissue damage as results of occupational physical demands could be used for detection of work related musculoskeletal disorders. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess work- related musculoskeletal disorders, physical work load index, selected salivary biomarkers (Creatine kinase and C - reactive protein) and to find the relation among them. Subjects and Methods: Study participants are consisted of 112 dentists. They were selected from college of dentistry /Baghdad University, health care center in Bagdad city. They were of both gender and aged between 40-45 years .they should fit the study criteria. Self-administered standardized Nordic questionnaires were used to evaluate musculoskeletal complaints. Physical work load was evaluated by used physical work load index. Stimulated saliva were collected from subsample (87) dentists drawn randomly from the total sample, for whom biochemical analysis (measurement of creatine kinase and C - reactive protein) were done. Results: Results showed that low back and neck complaints is the most complaint experienced by the dentists with percentages of ( 69.6% and 66.1% ), followed by the shoulder complaint (49.1% ) while the hip complaint showed the lowest percentage (13.4%).According to severity scores ,both low back and neck musculoskeletal complaints were of score 3 severity (score 3 constituted the highest percentages in both area (27.7% ,23.2%respectively) as compared to other severity scors.For shoulder complaint it was of score 2 severity (score 2 constituted the highest percentage 23.2% as compared to other severity scores, The musculoskeletal complaints(proximal ,neck, shoulder and low back) had higher mean rank values in the highest quartile of Physical work load index with non – significant differences (P<0.05). Regarding salivary creatine kinase the proximal ,total and low back complaints had higher mean rank values among dentists with highest Creatine kinase quartile , while distal manifestations ,neck and shoulder complaints had higher mean rank value in the average interquartile range of Creatine kinase with non – significant differences( P<0.05). For c- reactive protein almost all the complaints(proximal , total ,neck and shoulder) had higher mean rank values in the first lowest quartile with non – significant differences( P<0.05). Conclusions: Physical work load increase the risk of musculoskeletal disorders occurrence. Salivary creatine kinase could serve as a biomarker that reflects the underlying of musculoskeletal complaints more than C - reactive protein. Further studies that used more objective tools for assessing musculoskeletal disorders is needed.
