Foundation:

in Cuba, dental chairs are designed for right-handed, so left-handed students (who have increased by number in the province of Cienfuegos) should change their laterality without taking into account yjeir brain dominance, which could affect their performance, as dental practice depends largely on manual skills.

Objective:

to determine alterations due to forced laterality in left-handed students and dentistry professionals.

Methods:

retrospective descriptive study conducted in the Cienfuegos province in the period from September 2017 to June 2018. A number of 49 left-handers were included (17 students of 4th and 5th year and 32 graduates) The variables were: sex, laterality, practical skills, alterations due to forced laterality, dental specialties, years of work.

Results:

55.10% were female; 55.10% reported cross laterality; 100% perceived the improvement of their skill practices in the 8th semester. Among the alterations were muscle pain (69.38%) mainly in the hand, cervical region and back, out of them, 51.02% are Comprehensive General Dentists. Pains increased with years of work, in addition feelings of insecurity (79.60%), anxiety (89.80%), and fear (91.84%). A 34.69% did not show any painful symptoms, from them 20, 40% men. They were from orthodontics, maxillofacial surgery, prostheses, administrative and professors.

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