Extremely Worried About My Hand Skills, Need Advice

[TeethVader]

Well, I happen to be one of the harderst working persons here at my school and as much as I've tried to develop my skills I am still pretty bad. Worst of all, I have faculty that helps me step by step and tells me all the secrets to make good preps and I still fail preparation exams. My peers don't come as often to practice in SIM lab and always do better than me (they pass prep exams); SIM lab has become my 2nd home, I'm here everyday.
I am really losing confidence that someday my hand skills will develop up to a decent criteria.
The bad thing is that I have been a recipient of different scholarships and I am not a young pup and married; hence, switching careers at this point of my life is not an option. I truly love dentistry but I am getting very discouraged and truly don't know what to do.

Any tips on how to hold the handpiece, fulcrum, etc etc to make a good prep will be highly appreciated. Thank you!

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[cameltoe]

Well, I happen to be one of the harderst working persons here at my school and as much as I've tried to develop my skills I am still pretty bad. Worst of all, I have faculty that helps me step by step and tells me all the secrets to make good preps and I still fail preparation exams. My peers don't come as often to practice in SIM lab and always do better than me (they pass prep exams); SIM lab has become my 2nd home, I'm here everyday.
I am really losing confidence that someday my hand skills will develop up to a decent criteria.
The bad thing is that I have been a recipient of different scholarships and I am not a young pup and married; hence, switching careers at this point of my life is not an option. I truly love dentistry but I am getting very discouraged and truly don't know what to do.

Any tips on how to hold the handpiece, fulcrum, etc etc to make a good prep will be highly appreciated. Thank you!

I was one of the worst at hand skills my freshman year in school. Buddy, you have to keep practicing until you and the drill become one. try using smaller burs like a 329 or 330 initially until you develop some sharper skills. Use smooth motions when you cut. Dont dig into the tooth. Slowly and uniformly reduce the central groove to the depth of a 330 bur (which is 1.5mm). Smooth and accurate motions are the key to your success. I know it sounds easier than its done, but with enough practice you can do it.

P.S. I was so bad at prepping, the first time I used the mirror in the lab, I hit the screw that held the ivorine tooth in place (I think thats about a depth of 7-8mm!). Its pathetic, but to see how far Ive come from that time, I am still somewhat in awe.

 

[TeethVader]

I was one of the worst at hand skills my freshman year in school. Buddy, you have to keep practicing until you and the drill become one. try using smaller burs like a 329 or 330 initially until you develop some sharper skills. Use smooth motions when you cut. Dont dig into the tooth. Slowly and uniformly reduce the central groove to the depth of a 330 bur (which is 1.5mm). Smooth and accurate motions are the key to your success. I know it sounds easier than its done, but with enough practice you can do it.

P.S. I was so bad at prepping, the first time I used the mirror in the lab, I hit the screw that held the ivorine tooth in place (I think thats about a depth of 7-8mm!). Its pathetic, but to see how far Ive come from that time, I am still somewhat in awe.

Thanks man, I'll definitely give it a try. I tend to penetrate deep to 1.5 and then extend. Please keep those advices coming!!

 

[Lidopaine82]

Thanks man, I'll definitely give it a try. I tend to penetrate deep to 1.5 and then extend. Please keep those advices coming!!

i used to to that too. but that is bad. just go down a little at a time. and check your progress on the screen after every little thing.

 

[nvpremolar]

My preps used to be hideous. Finally an intructor told me to use a new sharp bur every day and turn down the speed of the hand peice. That helped out a lot. You can then start to increase the speed of the handpeice so you can work faster. Also remeber that you have a lot more control cutting on real teeth than plastic.

 

[dentalman]

Don't get help from instructors, unless they are really good. Find one of the students in your class that always has quality work (you know who it is), and hopefully they are a nice person, too, and ask if you can break down how they do a prep. Or, even better, ask an upper classmen who really has it together. But pay attention to all of the details. How they hold the handpiece, use the mirror, position their body, and the fluid motion of the handpiece. And practice, practice, practice. But don't practice your current crappy techniques over and over. Find new ones and shift your way of thinking and moving.

Are you prepping deeper than 1.5mm? Try this: Drill 1.3 mm holes in each pit, then methodically but smoothly connect the pits along the grooves while watching the top of the bur so it stays at 1.3mm. (Measure your bur so you know exactly how long it is.) If you were drilling too deep I bet you weren't even looking at the depth of the bur before because you were too worried about outline.
Now that you have your basic outline at about 1.3 mm, smooth it out and by the time you are done it will "grow" to 1.5mm. Keep watching the end of the bur so it doesn't sink.
There are many ways to do it. That is just one.

 

[drhobie7]

If all else fails...go ORTHO!

 

[TeethVader]

Thanks for the advice everybody! I'll definitely try the techniques suggested and will also talk to my upperclassmen about their technique strategies..

 

[superchris147]

if you are having problems cutting deeper than 1.5 mm (i have had problems with it before) i wouldn't recomend using a 330 at least for the entire prep. the 330 is good for making an initial cut because it is an end-cutting bur (ie: its easy to cut down and go deeper than 1.5 mm) however i would recomend using a 169 bur to finish your prep. what i usually tend to do is use a 330 to make my initial cuts and make the cuts at about 1.3 mm deep. then i switch to a 169 to finish and usually by the time i finish doing my finishing i'm either at 1.5 mm or just shallow of it. you can also use a 55 or 55L in a slow speed if you have a hard time finishing it (its a bur with no taper and does not end cut).

if you have problems using the mirror it just takes practice. what i usually do is set the angle of my bur by using direct vision and then see what it looks like in the mirror. once you get used to what the angle looks like in the mirror it gets a lot easier

 

[drhobie7]

the problem with the 169L is that it is a divergent cutting bur. unless you're talking about prepping inlays, this may make it tough to create convergent walls. i like the tip about the 55. that could work well. using a slow speed is good advice too. you can tidy things up really nice with that.

 

[diagnodent]

Don't worry about it. I sucked in sim lab my first year. My handskills were awful and didn't start passing on a regular basis until the last quarter of sim lab. Please remember sim lab doesn't mean anything. It's not real life. Real preps don't look like those from sim lab, decay is present, teeth are mis-shapen or rotated. My handskill sucked my first year. In the real world I'm recommended by labs in town for being one of the best dentists in terms of handskills. You have to understand the process and what it is suppose to look like when you done. How you get to the end result doesn't matter as long as you get there.