Hands-on skills

[sgdorfl90]

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Hey guys, I am applying to dental schools currently, and I have a 4.0 and 23/24/18. BUT what is worrying me are the constants posts mentioning if you don't have good hands on skills, this career isn't for you. This thought keeps making me worried. Are we just on our own once we are in lab, or do we actually learn skills? Your responses about easing any worries are welcome, and please let me know the real scenario. If it really is what others have been posting, then I might need to rethink things. Thanks a lot.

 

[nothen2do]

Hey guys, I am applying to dental schools currently, and I have a 4.0 and 23/24/18. BUT what is worrying me are the constants posts mentioning if you don't have good hands on skills, this career isn't for you. This thought keeps making me worried. Are we just on our own once we are in lab, or do we actually learn skills? Your responses about easing any worries are welcome, and please let me know the real scenario. If it really is what others have been posting, then I might need to rethink things. Thanks a lot.

Thats why you're in the lab so much...to develop those hand skills. You will get much instruction from professors.

 

[crazy_sherm]

A lot of it will come with time and practice. Don't be discouraged early on if you can't cut the perfect prep. A lot of people will be in the same boat as you, but the few artist-types in your class will get the hang of it right way. Don't worry about them, just put in the effort and it'll come.

 

[aphistis]

A lot of it will come with time and practice. Don't be discouraged early on if you can't cut the perfect prep. A lot of people will be in the same boat as you, but the few artist-types in your class will get the hang of it right way. Don't worry about them, just put in the effort and it'll come.

What he said. My hand skills were crap at the beginning of dental school, but after thousands of hours of practice, you about can't help but get there. Like Sherm said, don't get discouraged if you're not one of the people who does lab work like they were born holding a handpiece; just keep plugging away and you'll get where you need to be. Good luck!

 

[cbennett]

I got the same worry. I am a natural artist but i never realy use this talent. I am not sure if its due to my vision or my hand skills but i still am worried about it. My father has EXTREMELY shaky hands. Not sure if its due to the fact he never relaxes, He is deffinatley the biggest workaholic i have ever met so this probably contributes to it. My hands are certainly not perfectly steady but are average. One thing that kind of worries me about my build is that i am fairly tall 6'5'' and have extremely long arms (70 inch arm span) I am worried that if i am holding tools or whatever out in front of my body without bracing them(not a problem when drawing) on something that the length of my arms will casue every slight movement to be exagerated. Anybody know of other people with a similar cituation. Also i still have a year till i begin, are there many movements/procedures(hundreds) you must master or are there just a few (20-30ish) and is there some way of practiceing theses skills and seeing if i can do them before starting dental school or would i need a manican/stupid volunteer to try these.

 

[nothen2do]

I got the same worry. I am a natural artist but i never realy use this talent. I am not sure if its due to my vision or my hand skills but i still am worried about it. My father has EXTREMELY shaky hands. Not sure if its due to the fact he never relaxes, He is deffinatley the biggest workaholic i have ever met so this probably contributes to it. My hands are certainly not perfectly steady but are average. One thing that kind of worries me about my build is that i am fairly tall 6'5'' and have extremely long arms (70 inch arm span) I am worried that if i am holding tools or whatever out in front of my body without bracing them(not a problem when drawing) on something that the length of my arms will casue every slight movement to be exagerated. Anybody know of other people with a similar cituation. Also i still have a year till i begin, are there many movements/procedures(hundreds) you must master or are there just a few (20-30ish) and is there some way of practiceing theses skills and seeing if i can do them before starting dental school or would i need a manican/stupid volunteer to try these.

The secret they teach you day one is the finger rest. You use your ring finger to balance and support your hand holding the instrument. Works like a charm and is great for when the kid sitting back to you "accidently" bumps you when he's adjusting his dummy head/seating position

 

[cbennett]

The secret they teach you day one is the finger rest. You use your ring finger to balance and support your hand holding the instrument. Works like a charm and is great for when the kid sitting back to you "accidently" bumps you when he's adjusting his dummy head/seating position

I think i understand what your saying but want to clarify it. You rest your ring finger on a tooth or something while using the other fingers to operate the tool. WOW thats a great releif i was realy worried about that.
thanks for the info.

 

[nothen2do]

I think i understand what your saying but want to clarify it. You rest your ring finger on a tooth or something while using the other fingers to operate the tool. WOW thats a great releif i was realy worried about that.
thanks for the info.

You got it. Your hand skills develop over time and just practice practice. The learning curve is quite steep also, so at first your slow and crappy, but soon you'll realize that your improving greatly with every day.

 

[bpenly]

The secret they teach you day one is the finger rest. You use your ring finger to balance and support your hand holding the instrument. Works like a charm and is great for when the kid sitting back to you "accidently" bumps you when he's adjusting his dummy head/seating position

Nice article on finger rests to follow up on this post.

http://www.jdentaled.org/cgi/content/full/69/4/453

 

[Sprgrover]

A lot of it will come with time and practice. Don't be discouraged early on if you can't cut the perfect prep. A lot of people will be in the same boat as you, but the few artist-types in your class will get the hang of it right way. Don't worry about them, just put in the effort and it'll come.

I agree. Furthermore, don't be discouraged if some things come faster than others. I'm a lefty and some procedures I had to learn to adjust my grip, angle, and so on from a right handed demo. You're in the lab to develop skill and as crazy_sherm stated don't look at what your neighbor is doing - just focus on your own performance and you'll be fine. 👍

 

[Sprgrover]

I got the same worry. I am a natural artist but i never realy use this talent. I am not sure if its due to my vision or my hand skills but i still am worried about it. My father has EXTREMELY shaky hands. Not sure if its due to the fact he never relaxes, He is deffinatley the biggest workaholic i have ever met so this probably contributes to it. My hands are certainly not perfectly steady but are average. One thing that kind of worries me about my build is that i am fairly tall 6'5'' and have extremely long arms (70 inch arm span) I am worried that if i am holding tools or whatever out in front of my body without bracing them(not a problem when drawing) on something that the length of my arms will casue every slight movement to be exagerated. Anybody know of other people with a similar cituation. Also i still have a year till i begin, are there many movements/procedures(hundreds) you must master or are there just a few (20-30ish) and is there some way of practiceing theses skills and seeing if i can do them before starting dental school or would i need a manican/stupid volunteer to try these.

Don't worry about this. You'll learn proper positioning: how to hold your arms, posture, and more importantly how to hold a drill (your hand is not dangling in the air but it braced by finger rests - either on the patient's face or preferably on adjacent teeth). As far as slight movements in the arm creating large problems in a small prep, everyone will experience that in the absence of proper support, regardless of their arm length. While I understand your desire to practice, I wouldn't worry to much about it - from the standpoint that you'll get enough of it in dental school but also you don't want to start to develop bad habits in the absence of instruction. Don't worry, you'll learn all about this in your preclinical courses and you'll be just fine.

 

[dane4695]

You're in dental school to learn the skills, the tips, and the tricks. It comes more naturally to some than others. I wouldn't worry about it, but judging from your stats you'll probably worry regardless of what I say.

If you're really worried you could practice carving soap up or something, but I really don't think you need to unless you have some physical disorder that causes you to tremble or something.

After doing a semester of opperative dentistry, I think the thing that supprised me most was not doing the actual movements required to complete a procedure, but instead recognizing the exact shape of a prep, or returning a tooth to its original anatomy. Establishing a sharp eye is challenging, and takes time. Again, this comes faster to some than others, but I noticed the people in my class who were previously dental assistants or or in hygiene who had lots of experience seeing and looking at teeth were typically quick and were better at both carving clean preps and restoring natural anatomy. My assumption is because they've seen this stuff a lot.

That being said, if you get some free time I'd recommend really looking at or drawing teeth from different perspectives. When I first started doing work I was afraid I'd be hopeless as a dentist... but once I could really see and understand what I was trying to restore, my work looked much nicer 🙂

 

[cbennett]

Thanks guy/gals, I think ill be fine. I never noticed my dentist bracing his finger on my. I drew my conclusion thinking that i would need to be able to hold my arms out perfectly still and do the fine movements without any support but this should be no problem at all.

 

[TeethVader]

Ok, I'm hand-skill challenged. I have been going off saying that handskills are extremelly important, and...they are!! I just took my first exam in Restorative doing a couple of Class II preps and what I've found is that not only do your handskills are important but also the type of armamentarium you use. Having your instrments fine-tuned and learning to use as in restorative, the right burs to cut your preps, become substantially important.
I can say that today, I cut a couple of pretty Class II preps...I thought I was never going to be able to do it. Just be confident, I didn't have it; but, now, I have felt an awesome improvement on my preps....don't get discouraged, take it from me; one of those guys in the class of 09 who is the worst when it comes to hand skills.