What can I do before dental school to get better hand skills?

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I attended a pre-dental simulation clinic, and part of the tour included going to the sim lab and working with waxups and using the high-speed hand piece. Needless to say, my hand skills were garbage trying to make a waxup of teeth. I don't know if this makes it more challenging for me, but I'm left handed as well. So it was hard to hold the hand piece and work with the dummy, since everything seems like its made for right handed people.

This experience started to put a sour taste in my mouth about whether or not this is really the right career choice for me if my hand skills aren't that great to begin with. I don't expect to be an expert clinician right off the bat, but how big of an issue is this at dental schools? Do you have any classmates that struggle with the clinical aspect of dentistry, and do they ever get through it or maybe even drop out? Are some people just not cut out for this type of work? I'm close to applying for the next cycle, but I'm starting to second guess myself.

In the meantime, I wanted to find out what I could be doing to improve my hand skills in general. What kind of things can I start doing now to help me when I make it to dental school? Are there particular hobbies or clubs I can join that will give me real, transferable experience when it comes to the clinic? There's a lot of things out there to do with working with your hands, e.g. cleaning fish or something, but I doubt they will give you any advantage or edge in dentistry. Thank you for your help.

Video games

First year of dental school will require you to do plenty of cutting typodont teeth, which means alot of time to practice your hand skills. In the meantime, there is not much that you can prepare for.
My advice is that you pay close attention when the instructors teach you the prep and waxing techniques.

How about something fun...buy yourself an acoustic/electric guitar

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Originally Posted by GreatDDS

First year of dental school will require you to do plenty of cutting typodont teeth, which means alot of time to practice your hand skills. In the meantime, there is not much that you can prepare for.
My advice is that you pay close attention when the instructors teach you the prep and waxing techniques.

Read this very closely. I agree 100%!!!

the best thing you can do before dental school is relax. you won't get much opportunity to relax after it starts. In terms of your hand skills, I purposefully did not try to learn how to do any preps or anything because I didn't want to pick up any bad habits that I had to unlearn.

Don't worry, dental school is designed to teach you how to do these things. You pay good money for them to teach you. Don't go spending your free time on this when you don't have to.

Originally Posted by Shnurek

Video games

add me on xbox live: The Anhedonia
( i'm a 2nd-year dental student)

the vast majority of peoples handskills suck at the start. I know people in my class that were playing piano for 15 years and they still sucked at first. Just relax, really.

Vivaldi and Origami

I found this thread interesting. I haven't tried anything yet though. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/show...ht=hand+skills

The world is far too sensitive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHU...feature=relmfu

Originally Posted by SexyMariGal

I attended a pre-dental simulation clinic, and part of the tour included going to the sim lab and working with waxups and using the high-speed hand piece. Needless to say, my hand skills were garbage trying to make a waxup of teeth. I don't know if this makes it more challenging for me, but I'm left handed as well. So it was hard to hold the hand piece and work with the dummy, since everything seems like its made for right handed people.

This experience started to put a sour taste in my mouth about whether or not this is really the right career choice for me if my hand skills aren't that great to begin with. I don't expect to be an expert clinician right off the bat, but how big of an issue is this at dental schools? Do you have any classmates that struggle with the clinical aspect of dentistry, and do they ever get through it or maybe even drop out? Are some people just not cut out for this type of work? I'm close to applying for the next cycle, but I'm starting to second guess myself.

In the meantime, I wanted to find out what I could be doing to improve my hand skills in general. What kind of things can I start doing now to help me when I make it to dental school? Are there particular hobbies or clubs I can join that will give me real, transferable experience when it comes to the clinic? There's a lot of things out there to do with working with your hands, e.g. cleaning fish or something, but I doubt they will give you any advantage or edge in dentistry. Thank you for your help.

Hi there,

There is nothing that you can do before hand to improve your handskill. Teeth preparation is a learned skill that can be only achieved when you are doing it. Don't waste your time building models, painting, drawing, because working on teeth with a handpiece is different than anything you have experienced in your life. DP

Nothing. The most crucial thing about developing hand skills in dental school is to put the time in and not goof off when you have projects to be signed off/practicals looming on the horizon. I started my first pros class this semester, and i thought after the first week that I was going to fail out of school for sure.
It doesn't matter how shaky your hand skills are. You will learn if you put the time in.

Originally Posted by Dr. Dai Phan

Hi there,

There is nothing that you can do before hand to improve your handskill. Teeth preparation is a learned skill that can be only achieved when you are doing it. Don't waste your time building models, painting, drawing, because working on teeth with a handpiece is different than anything you have experienced in your life. DP

Originally Posted by tinman831

Thank you Mr. Senior Mod. It is always great to have my post approved with a thumb up from the man! DP

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=605396

I agree with everyone else. You can't prepare for it and you are better off learning from the faculty at your school.

The one thing that I will tell you is that more than 99% of us are capable of gaining the hand skills required to become a dentist, but those skills will come easier to some students than others.

I had some classmates that seemed to effortlessly cut a perfect crown prep or class 2 prep without much practice, while it took me hours and hours of practice and extra instruction to get to the same place or maybe honestly almost as good as them. If you are in dental school and find yourself struggling to gain the required hand skills, just tough it out and keep practicing and working with faculty and high performing classmates to get where you need to be.