How important is manual dexterity in dentistry? finger dexterity? What if you are not too good at it?
manual dexterity
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It's basically your whole career..... you need to be able to move/manipulate all sorts of instruments and materials and wires in the mouth all the time. I think pretty much everyone isn't great at it when they start, but you'll get better at it eventually because practice makes perfect (there's a huge learning curve tho).
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It is important. But there are many way to learn and get good at it.
I find the young dentists that I work with that have poor hand skills get better with time and practice.
I also find the young dentists that come to me with good hand skill tend to have had life experiences that helped develop those skills. Examples would include sewing, model building, carpentry, electronic gadget repair, origami, auto body work , puppetry, welding, cake decorating, sculpture, slight of hand magic, bicycle maintaince, etc.
I find the young dentists that I work with that have poor hand skills get better with time and practice.
I also find the young dentists that come to me with good hand skill tend to have had life experiences that helped develop those skills. Examples would include sewing, model building, carpentry, electronic gadget repair, origami, auto body work , puppetry, welding, cake decorating, sculpture, slight of hand magic, bicycle maintaince, etc.
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Don’t forget playing the drums. That really helped me when I need to flip my instrument around since I already knew how to spin my drum sticks.
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If you have to ask....
All joking aside, manual dexterity IS your (future) career. 3 crucial aspects being able to visually differentiate fractions of a mm, having good hand-eye coordination, and translating 2D into 3D mental image to 3D product with your hands.
Previous experience in “handiwork” helps but unfortunately they only apply at the “macro” scale whereas most of dentistry is measured in fractions of a millimeter.
All joking aside, manual dexterity IS your (future) career. 3 crucial aspects being able to visually differentiate fractions of a mm, having good hand-eye coordination, and translating 2D into 3D mental image to 3D product with your hands.
Previous experience in “handiwork” helps but unfortunately they only apply at the “macro” scale whereas most of dentistry is measured in fractions of a millimeter.
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There is no vetting process for "manual dexterity" when applying to dental school. There are more dental students than you would think out there who struggle with their hand skills at first. But almost everyone figures it out and ends up graduating. Don't worry about it.
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Dexterity is learned. Some people are better than it than others. That's not the most important part of dental school. Some entrance examinations for international dentists involve cutting preps, soap carving, and other tests (I wouldn't know - not an international dentist).
Unless your hand is permanently broken or you are blind, you should be able to go to dental school w/ no problem.
