Quality of working life of dental office staff: Surveys of work of dental assistants in Senegal

The working conditions are a set of parameters that influence the satisfaction found daily at this activity. Dental assistants play an invaluable part in the dental team by improving the dentist's efficiency in delivering oral health care and by increasingly influencing the productivity of the dental office through interpersonal relationships and competence these techniques. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the working conditions and to determine the degree of satisfaction. Material and Methods:This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with dental assistants listed in the registries of the Association of Dental Assistants of Senegal. This is a self-administered survey with a three-part form. The study lasted two months and the 140 participants were informed of the nature and purpose of the survey and their participation was anonymous and voluntary. A total of 113 responded to the questionnaire, datawas collected and analyzed with SPSS 18 for Windows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA). The comparison of the data was made with the chi-square tests X2 and Pearson and a significance threshold p ? 0.05was retained. Results: The results of this study conducted with Senegalese dental assistants show very precarious working conditions resulting in low salary levels; 53.1% earn less than 200 euros for 40 hours of work per week and 46% work without a contract. Despite a very stressful work environment, a statistically significant difference could not be established between salary and job satisfaction. Conclusion:The results of this study show a precarious profession with very low pay levels and almost non-existent work contracts.