do you recommend taking small scale sculpture or intro-level ceramic?

[tomatoketchap]

what do you recommend 'a'?thankyou

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[DROCKINDAHOUSE]

I've worked as a DA for the past year. I've also had the chance to a substantial amount of lab work including taking impressions, making retainers, nightguards, matrices, etc., and waxing. I would suggest working in a dental lab. My hand skills have increased dramatically and I know next year in dental school the experience will be invaluable.

 

[NAVY DDS 2010]

I've worked as a DA for the past year. I've also had the chance to a substantial amount of lab work including taking impressions, making retainers, nightguards, matrices, etc., and waxing. I would suggest working in a dental lab. My hand skills have increased dramatically and I know next year in dental school the experience will be invaluable.

The problem with trying ot get a job in a lab is actually finding a lab that will take you on, train you knowing that you might/will leave with in a relatively short time (couple years). It takes that long for your skills to reach a level of proficiency where it is beneficial for the lab. So, are they willing to invest their time in helpign you with your dental skills? Some are, but it is hard to find them.

Any class or hobby that forces you to develop finite motor skills of the muscles in the hands and teach you how to judge fine details will be beneficial. But the again, you can excell in dental school without having done any fine motor skills prior to dental school. I never did and I get mostly all A's in lab work. Do I just have a natural talent or did I just learn quickly? I couldn't tell you. I just know that it is possible to excell without having classes like ceramics or sculpture. Would it help you if you could fit it into your schedule? Most likely, yes.

 

[leoele]

what do you recommend 'a'?thankyou

I took handbuilding ceramics, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd recommend taking any class possible that you use your hands with. If you claim that you are good with your hands, then a basic ceramics class should be a breeze. A lot of the kids complained that it was "too hard" and "too much work" but honestly, I felt like I was in preschool again, except that I had to clean up after myself... Either way, I had a great time, and I made some cool stuff, pots, bowls, mugs, a beer stein, and a large dodecahedron that I still haven't figured out quite what do do with!

Also, there are classes that you might not think will help out your dexterity, but they will. For example, if you take a microbiology lab, you not only learn stuff that will be taught in dental school, but the lab component requires a fair amount of dexterity (swabbing, preparing petri dishes, staining, etc). I've also heard that jewelry making is supposed to be a good one, but I just couldn't get over my ego enough to sign up for it.

 

[blue34]

I took an intro to ceramics course as well. You can list it as an activity that helped you build your manual dexterity. Some dental schools (like Minnesota) list art as a good elective to take to prepare for dental school.

 

[beastmode]

I took a sculpture class and it did not help much. Everything that we did was on too large a scale to be benefit your fine motor coordination. I heard jewelery classes are good because you are working on a small scale.

I agree with the previous post, a lot of biology lab work is good practice. I was involved in electron microscopy research and you really find out a lot about your manual dexterity when you are trying to trim thin sections under a microscope.

 

[Mstoothlady2012]

i took ceramics class past summer. I think making pots helps to improve hand-eye coordination, since you have to make sure that you move your hands in just about right angle. I didn't do any fine designs, but it sure helped me to concentrate better while working on something so delicate and it was lots of fun!

 

[DROCKINDAHOUSE]

Maybe you could bake cheerios. Think about all that work that goes into making each little hoop of honey-nut goodness.

 

[Quattro DMD]

I borrowed a typodont and some plastic preps from my dentist along with a few tools and some wax. I'm gonna practice doing wax ups so that I don't have a headache when trying to do them in school.

 

[losdientes]

Sculpture. I've taken Sculpture since I was 15, so I'm biased.

 

[montag925]

Follow these steps:

1: Get into dental school
1A: Enjoy yourself as best you can while doing so
2: Enjoy college while it lasts. Ferris Buhler once said that life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and take a look around, you could miss it.

...If you are seriously asking that question, then you need to refer to clause 1A or 2. Seriously though, your time would be better spent studying for your upcoming finals than deliberating that question.