Considering Dentistry:Hand Skills

[Darkskies]

Hi,
I've been considering dentistry on and off but the main aspect of the profession that has perturbed me is whether or not I will have the necessary hand skills. This is because of the fact that I have never been someone who's been very good at tasks requiring manual dexterity(like woodworking)and have always been very slow and inefficient at them. One example that comes to mind is that in High School ceramics it would take me forever to even mold a clay pot and when it was finished mine was still a shoddy job compared to even the average person's. That being said, I do have steady hands.

I would be willing to work very hard to gain the skills needed for dentistry but I also fear saddling myself with an enormous load of debt to only find out that I am unsuited for the profession. Any and all advice is much appreciated! Thanks,
Darkskies

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Ostracized]

I'm similar to you and yet I am above average in my restorative lab. In fact, working with a drill is the best part of my week. On the other hand, prostho lab work is brutal. Don't worry too much about it, no one is a natural at the technical aspects.

 

[NAVY DDS 2010]

Don't worry about the hand skills. if you have steady hands as you state, then that is all you need at this point. Determine whether dentistry is for you by shadowing a variety of dentists in your area. If you come home feeling like you are very intrigued or even excited about what you saw, then dentistry is probably going to interest you. Then focus getting into school. Once you are in school, you will be shoown what you need to do and will have PLENTY of time to master your hand skills. I know plenty of students who basically sucked when it came to waxing or drilling teeth at first. Now, they are in their 4th year and are doing extremely well. Very few people have ever done the type of hand skills that are done in d-school prior to entering d-school. Yes, some people have natural skills and a few have done lab work before d-school, but in the end most people have fairly similar skills once leaving d-school no matter how well you did initially.

Don't sweat it. If what you observe about dentistry draws your interest, then once in school, with practice, you too will do just fine!

 

[Darkskies]

Thanks a lot for the advice Ostracized and Navy DDS 2010! I will be sending an email out to a dental institute near my University that has a shadowing program for undergraduate students so I should be on my way to experiencing clinical dentistry soon(I'll probably ask them some questions too)!