Not confident in hand skills

[Trilby]

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Hi dental students!

I'm still a predent at the moment but I'm having hesitations b/c I don't know how good my hand skills are. I don't have shaky hands, just a slight tremor. I've searched the forums and I've heard mixed stories about manual dexterity from people flunking out and those saying that everyone can develop good hand skills.

Could current dental students please inform me of the situation at their schools? What percent of your class flunks out due to poor manual dexterity? Are there people with "lead hands" who can't improve up to par no matter what and if so, what are the signs? Are there activities I can do to improve and/or access my manual dexterity?

Thank you for your time!

 

[Doc Smile]

Hi dental students!

I'm still a predent at the moment but I'm having hesitations b/c I don't know how good my hand skills are. I don't have shaky hands, just a slight tremor. I've searched the forums and I've heard mixed stories about manual dexterity from people flunking out and those saying that everyone can develop good hand skills.

Could current dental students please inform me of the situation at their schools? What percent of your class flunks out due to poor manual dexterity? Are there people with "lead hands" who can't improve up to par no matter what and if so, what are the signs? Are there activities I can do to improve and/or access my manual dexterity?

Thank you for your time!

No. I will admit my hand skill sucked, as compared to now, from back in undergrad. Many many many of your first year lab projects are for the sole purpose of improving your hand skills, even in second year, our finish lines for our preps have to be 0.3 mm from the gingiva (instead of sub-g which we will be doing 70-90% of the time in clinic) but the whole purpose of that 0.3mm is to improve our hand skills/prove our skills. You will be amazed at how quickly you improve - especially if you stay after hours, do extra preps, and really really try to get better. There are very few things you can do now in undergrad to improve your handskills like they will be needed once you get into D-School. This is NOT one of the things you should be worried about at the moment.

My class (IUSD 2014 REPRESENT!!) was the first class in 14 years to not have anyone fail first year, so I may not have the most experience in people failing out. But, what I can see from other classes, it seems that people fail out for:

1) not trying hard enough/not giving enough sh*ts to do well on projects/tests

2) poor time management and not being able to put in the time needed to get good at a lab project for a competency or study all the material thoroughly enough to pass the test/quiz/whatever

3) doing something stupid, unethical, unprofessional (i.e. cheating) and getting the boot.

Don't do those and you will be a grand dentista. Bueno?

 

[dentalWorks]

Hi dental students!

I'm still a predent at the moment but I'm having hesitations b/c I don't know how good my hand skills are. I don't have shaky hands, just a slight tremor. I've searched the forums and I've heard mixed stories about manual dexterity from people flunking out and those saying that everyone can develop good hand skills.

Could current dental students please inform me of the situation at their schools? What percent of your class flunks out due to poor manual dexterity? Are there people with "lead hands" who can't improve up to par no matter what and if so, what are the signs? Are there activities I can do to improve and/or access my manual dexterity?

Thank you for your time!

Trust me, many (by many I mean "most") pre-dents / DS1's have garbage hand skills.... You should see the #12 and #14 I "prepped" last week.... Lets just say, neither task got signed off and I need to redo both 10 times to get them to the clinically-acceptable level.

Most of us in the sim lab are doing 12s and 14s without mirrors (yes, bending over, haunching over, etc, all bad ergonomics, but what are we supposed to do? we can't work with the mirrors). With the example I said above, I did 12 and 14 with ONLY using the mirrors and ended up destroying both teeth.... Now I have to redo them both, and guess what, I am not gonna use the mirror this time.

As far as shakes go, I learned that eating prevents my shakes. When I am hungry I do shake often, but even that shouldn't be a problem because you do position your hand (like ring-finger) over other teeth when you are working so that will minimize shakes.

 

[Ryltar]

I wouldn't worry about shakes/tremors unless they're major. Almost every procedure in dentistry is done with a fulcrum, which is resting either your ring finger, or pinky finger, or both on an adjacent tooth or firm gingival tissue, or even the patients chin to stabilize your instruments when holding them.

Everyone has a minor shake to a varying degree. Using a fulcrum eliminates any minor shakes.

 

[Trilby]

Bump. Could other dental students please weigh in?

 

[AmpedUp]

first few years of dental school focuses on developing your hand skills...you'll be able to fine tune them before you see your first patient. so i wouldn't worry too much if your hand skills are lacking at this point. i think it takes a dedicated & motivated person to acquire those skills any way...gotta keep at it!

also, if you have tremors...is it possible to work with a physical therapist to help you control them? because i would if it was a problem for me. control is a big part of developing hand skills. i think for most people it is a psychological barrier. it would be nice to find out if that could be the case for you so it's easy for you to pinpoint what you need to work on in terms of control.

 

[drgioiadds]

This is my experience. As a dental student my hand skills stunk. I took the Canadian DAT at a time when the carving was mandatory and it took 3 x to get the "acceptable" score of 15!

At Marquette, I struggled the first year but things started catching up with the rest of the class in second year. As far as clinic, its a whole new world. You have so many other factors such as patient cooperation, facial anatomy and not to mention the difference in hardness of enamel to plastic. It won't be hard to achieve clinically acceptable work with practice. The key is to enjoy the work. If you enjoy it, you'll get better.