nervous hands?

[DAT_MAN]

Did you guys ever feel nervous when an instructor was watching you do procedures that required a lot of precision? What about the first patient you ever treated? I think I would be really nervous and end up poking somebody in their cheek with an instrument..... My dentist told me there was a couple people in her class who didn't make it because they were sloppy with their hands. I would hate to spend two years and $60,000 to find out I couldn't make it because of my hands.....

 

[aphistis]

Did you guys ever feel nervous when an instructor was watching you do procedures that required a lot of precision?

The good news is that instructors rarely have time to watch you doing the procedures. The bad news is that everything except perio requires a lot of precision. 🙂

What about the first patient you ever treated? I think I would be really nervous and end up poking somebody in their cheek with an instrument.....

Sure, you'll be nervous. You'll poke cheeks with instruments, nick waggly tongues with your handpiece, all sorts of stuff. The wonderful thing about oral tissues is that they're practically invincible. There's not much you can do to them that they won't heal from just fine.

My dentist told me there was a couple people in her class who didn't make it because they were sloppy with their hands. I would hate to spend two years and $60,000 to find out I couldn't make it because of my hands.....

That's pretty uncommon. With enough practice, the hand skills can be learned by just about anyone. I'm a good example of someone who started out with *terrible* hand skills, but eventually learned and does a perfectly good job on real patients.