Amber Is Asking: New instrument line brings harmony to hand scaling

Oct. 6, 2020
The majority of RDHs experience hand, arm, and shoulder pain throughout their careers. To create a truly innovative ergonomic scaler, HuFriedyGroup designed their own custom sensor technology and collected 2.8M data points.

Due to new restrictions on power instrumentation in the dental operatory, many dental hygienists are hand scaling more than ever before. While hand scaling may produce fewer aerosols than power instrumentation, it carries with it certain challenges, especially occupational pain. Even before the pandemic, 70% of dental hygienists reported hand, wrist, arm, and shoulder pain at some point throughout their careers.

The challenge in designing an ergonomic scaler is that much of a clinician's perception of comfort is subjective. To gather data for analysis, HuFriedyGroup turned to experts in many fields in the dental industry, and even designed their own custom sensor technology to collect information about pinch force and pressure. In the end, over 2.8 million data points were collected, and the Harmony Scaler was created. In this video, HuFriedyGroup Product Manager Erin Baumstark chats with Amber Auger, MPH, RDH, about what makes this instrument such an advancement.

About the Author

Amber Auger, MPH, RDH

Amber Auger, MPH, RDH, is an international lecturer, a 2019 Sunstar/RDH Award of Distinction recipient, editorial director for RDH Graduate, creator of Thrive in the Op, and certified Functional RDH. Amber has more than 18 years of experience in the dental field and has been practicing dental hygiene since 2010. An active mentor to fellow hygienists, she champions personal and professional growth through her innovative Thrive in the Op on-demand courses and live coaching sessions. She can be reached at [email protected].