manual skill?

[applicant]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I know that being a dentist requires being good at working with hands... manual dexterity.
Is this natural skill or something we can get good by practicing?
I don't think... personally ... that I am not good at manual skills. Does this mean that I won't be able to be a skillful dentist?

 

[sunwoongc]

We recently started waxing and there are people who are just naturally good at hand skills (ie: carving). The work done by such a person and a person with average hand skills are pretty noticeable. However, hand skills can be learned and over time, it is generally the trend that almost everybody becomes equally good at hand skills eventually during dental school (this is what upperclassmen tells me).
SC

 

[eleannaDDS]

Hi applicant,

Steve is right in telling you that manual dexterity can be developed over time. We started waxing in dental anatomy once school started and have been working on various projects for about 6 weeks now.

There were some people who created incredible models of the first assignment: a maxillary central incisor; but the class average as a whole was below passing, even though a few select individuals scored > 75%.

Since then, most people have improved and we have gone on to wax up canines, 1st premolars and 2nd premolars. It's definitely a lot harder than it seems - the class is still hovering around a 55-65% average depending on assignment - but you improve with time. And hopefully it'll soon take us less time to produce satisfactory ones! I'm in the upper half of the class (but definitely not one of the students right at the top) and it still takes 4-6 hours to model a tooth according to the prof's specifications. Crazy!

Don't worry too much about it now... you'll development all those skills in your dental training. It's a pretty amazing thing if you think about it 🙂

 

[Big_Poppa DDS]

Hand skills can definitly be developped. I totally sucked as a dental school freshman - failed a lot of practicals. I still made it to sophmore year and was getting A's on operative practicals. I am now graduating - still don't have the best hand skills but at least have good basics.

Good luck

 

[DrJeff]

Just as with almost anything, practice makes perfect. Many people start dental school with limited(if any) hand skills. With practice, you can become quite skilled, quickly(although subginival finish lines on maxillary second molars are still something I look forward too after 10 years
😉 ) One of the things that you find out after dental school is that bur manufacturers literally make thousands of different sizes and shapes to facilitate the ease of daily practice for everyones hands. Or if worse comes to worse and the hand skills just aren't there, do what my wife did(and I still love joking with her about it), go into Orthodontics, the specialty for those who can't use a handpiece! 😱 😀

 

[bobby]

I feel that nobody is born as a good dentist.. rather you make your self one.Back in my pre-clinicals years I was baffled by a few fellow students who where so good on the practical side.I made it to the top from rock bottom!Never get scared away. 😀 You can do it.

 

[DrJeff]

This is exactly why we PRACTICE dentistry, it is an ever changing and evolving profession, and frankly its real exciting to be in the profession now with all the great technological advances that are happening. Real soon you'll be reminissing about the days when you actually hand filed canals during endo, had seperate etch, primer, bonding agent and composite as opposed to 1 step restorative material, the days when you actually had to deal with disposing of the x-ray chemistry. I just hope that we'll still have amalgam(after you've been practicing and following many posterior composites for 5 years you'll know what I mean). Bottom line, unless your always practicing this profession you'll never become a good dentist. 😉

 

[vixen]

Just a question...I know it might sound stupid...I think tweezing would be good manual dexterity. I tweeze my own eyebrows and others, and I get compliments on it all the time...I do this more than frequently, and it requires a tool and precision. Do you guys think that this is stupid to mention about manual dexterity? It's really like an art w/your hands...but I know it's not anything like drafting, etc

 

[vixen]

bump