manual dexterity in dental school

[applicant]

I am predental and wondering...

are there people who had to drop out of dental school because they couldn't handle hand skills required?

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[ToothMonkey]

Never heard of it happening. IMO the vast majority of the adult population will inevitably develop decent hand skills if they repeat activities requiring such skills often enough. It will just take longer for some people. Assuming you don't have some sort of major motor problem (and by that I mean an actual pathological process afflicting your skeletomuscular or nervous tissue) the only way I could see anyone failing to develop the necessary manual dexterity for dentistry is if they don't put their time in practicing. Laziness is the only real obstacle.

 

[ItsGavinC]

It doesn't happen. For more info, do a search for this topic. There are at least 2-3 threads each month that ask this exact question.

 

[toofache32]

My school (U of Tennessee) saw 4-5 people who had to repeat a year for this reason. 2 of them eventually got nudged out even after repeating the year.

 

[applicant]

i did search on this topic and the main point i got was that manual dexterity is something you can put effort into and develop
but i wanted to clarify (although u can develop ur hand skill) if there are still people getting dropped out of dental school due to difficulty in manual dexterity.

So,
so far, there seems a split between there are people who had to quit and there are none

 

[aphistis]

Not many, but every so often one sneaks through the admissions process. The odds are in your favor; work hard and you'll be fine.

 

[v&andy_yankee]

"If you can tie your shoes, we can teach you to be a dentist"

Drilling/Prepping/etc is a little harder than just learning to tie a shoe, but the same: it just takes practice.

 

[drengineer]

"If you can tie your shoes, we can teach you to be a dentist"

Drilling/Prepping/etc is a little harder than just learning to tie a shoe, but the same: it just takes practice.

Holy crap! I'm gonna quickly learn to tie my shoes before dental school starts this month.
Why didn't you tell me this before?

 

[Ething]

what about holding a pencil correctly while writting? I dont hold my pencil correctly because I find it more comfortable another way. Also, what about people with bad hand-writting? Any dental students out there who are decent in clinical and have bad hand-writting?

 

[rocknightmare]

umm most people don't handle a pencil correctly. at least from a simple 5 people survey around my lab bench has shown none knew that you are suppose to hold the pencil with the middle finger on top of the pencil. so you will be fine

 

[Sprgrover]

I am predental and wondering...

are there people who had to drop out of dental school because they couldn't handle hand skills required?

I've never heard of it happening here at Penn. If you're worrying about your own abilities don't fret so much as dental school will teach you the necessary skills. And besides, you will be in good company as the majority of your class iwll be struggling with the same issues.

 

[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 differen 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.

 

[S Files]

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 differen 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.

dexterity usually comes (some sooner some later) after sufficient practice and repetition. however we had 1 guy who was strongly encouraged to go into oral pathology or maxillofacial radiology. he did just that (oral pathology/oral medicine integrated program) and seems to be loving it.