Before I came to dental school, I thought I would eventually become a pretty good clinician. I used to think I was pretty dexterous; I played multiple musical instruments for years, am still pretty good at drawing and carve pumpkins pretty well. However, I am so bad at drilling those artificial teeth! Now I feel extremely anxious about drilling teeth. My self-esteem is hitting rock bottom because I don't do as well as my classmates. I was so frustrated during my simulation class that I had to cry a little in the bathroom after class. I hope to eventually pick up hand skills necessary to become a successful clinician, but progress is highly unsatisfactory at the moment. If you have similar experiences but overcame the adversity, please share with me. Thank you.
self-esteem hitting rock bottom because I suck at drilling...
- Thread starter stk
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Don't stress out over your manual dexterity at this point. As you begin to practice more your skills will improve. Some students start out better than others, but as time passes the majority of the students are on an even level. Just try and remember that it takes time to learn these procedures and you are not the only person in your class that is stressed out about this subject.
Best of luck.
Best of luck.
dont worry i cry in the bathroom at work everyday 
no seriously though; you can teach a monkey to drill teeth; u just need to keep practicing. i also wasnt' a "natural" and i spent many night in the lab (and lots of money on those damn teeth) until i got better. dont worry you'll be fine
PS: a hint; dont pay any attentiont to those ******s that go around showing off their work to everybody. they're just looking for an ego boost
no seriously though; you can teach a monkey to drill teeth; u just need to keep practicing. i also wasnt' a "natural" and i spent many night in the lab (and lots of money on those damn teeth) until i got better. dont worry you'll be fine
PS: a hint; dont pay any attentiont to those ******s that go around showing off their work to everybody. they're just looking for an ego boost
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It does get much easier with practice. Heck after a while it becomes so second nature that you're not even thinking about it, and that's the key.
Right now, you're likely so mentally concerned with finger rests, hand piece grip technique, finger motions, am I using the proper bur, will I knick the adjacent tooth, have I dropped that box through the proximal contact yet? Is the isthmus too wide? and don't even mention indirect vision with the mirror Your brain is just trying to process too much info at once, and as happens to just about everyone in d-school you get so concerned with every last minute detail that you're scared to work.
With some practice (and it does vary from person to person how much), all those 20 different things your thinking about now as you're prepping those plastic teeth will first become 15 things, and then 10 things and then 5 things and then it will just happen.
Stick with it, you'll soon learn to love not loathe the handpiece!
Right now, you're likely so mentally concerned with finger rests, hand piece grip technique, finger motions, am I using the proper bur, will I knick the adjacent tooth, have I dropped that box through the proximal contact yet? Is the isthmus too wide? and don't even mention indirect vision with the mirror
Your brain is just trying to process too much info at once, and as happens to just about everyone in d-school you get so concerned with every last minute detail that you're scared to work.With some practice (and it does vary from person to person how much), all those 20 different things your thinking about now as you're prepping those plastic teeth will first become 15 things, and then 10 things and then 5 things and then it will just happen.
Stick with it, you'll soon learn to love
not loathe the handpiece!
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Also it's SOOO much easier to drill on real teeth than the plastic teeth.
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You and this guy should for a club.
All jokes aside, you can say all you want to say about how well prepared you are and how dexterous you are, but I can almost guarantee that no dental student going into dental school has the hands to start working on real patients right away. Just as one would not assume that a concert violinist would be a wiz on the piano in two weeks, don't assume you'll be the awesome clinician after only a couple months of school. The fine motor skills required develop over time. Don't fret too much about it at this point in your education. Learn as much as you can, practice as much as you can, and ask as many questions as you can.
All jokes aside, you can say all you want to say about how well prepared you are and how dexterous you are, but I can almost guarantee that no dental student going into dental school has the hands to start working on real patients right away. Just as one would not assume that a concert violinist would be a wiz on the piano in two weeks, don't assume you'll be the awesome clinician after only a couple months of school. The fine motor skills required develop over time. Don't fret too much about it at this point in your education. Learn as much as you can, practice as much as you can, and ask as many questions as you can.
You and this guy should for a club.
All jokes aside, you can say all you want to say about how well prepared you are and how dexterous you are, but I can almost guarantee that no dental student going into dental school has the hands to start working on real patients right away. Just as one would not assume that a concert violinist would be a wiz on the piano in two weeks, don't assume you'll be the awesome clinician after only a couple months of school. The fine motor skills required develop over time. Don't fret too much about it at this point in your education. Learn as much as you can, practice as much as you can, and ask as many questions as you can.
This is good news to see that people say it comes with time! BTW Tinman, is that a french Bulldog on your picture? And is it yours? I have been wanting to get one and am thinking maybe if I pass 1st year I will.
for prelinic you should really use slowspeed for almost everything. its not that way in clinic, but its just too easy to slip up with a highspeed on a practical. you can cut the rough outline of a prep with high speed to save time, but then refine it with a slowspeed. i've found that by refining with a slowspeed, it is really hard to mess up a prep. whereas if you're trying to make everything perfect using the highspeed it only takes a second to demolish a piece of something.
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Conceptually not a bad idea, however, when you get to a live patient and are working on a natural tooth, that low-speed for the bulk of the prep, just won't cut it (pun intended
), so then you might find yourself back to square one with feeling anxious about prepping a tooth with the high speed.And one more thing (and don't tell your pre-clin instructors that you heard this
) in the real world, while prepping a real tooth, there will be far more times that you're restoring a tooth that DOESN'T have a perfectly flat pulpal floor, and/or perfectly smooth/tapered axial walls, and the restoration will have a long, asymptomatic life! 
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don't worry, it all comes with time
suggestion: have you thought about purchasing loupes? sometimes the reason why people struggle with preps is that they can't see what they're doing.
This is a great suggestion. I went to the optometrist last week to update my Rx on my contacts b/c I was having a hard time seeing what I was doing through my loupes in preclinic. It's amazing how much I improved in both accuracy and speed once I was able to actually see what I was doing
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Stk,
Trust me it will get better with TIME..I was one of the weak student in Pre-clinic .No one knew it as I barely passed the first half of Operative class.I just didn't get it at first, but latter on things got better on the second half of the class..I stayed late in pre-clinic to improve my skills...Today I'm in clinic dropping boxes left and right and doing my Skills exams way ahead of some of my cut-throat classmates....It gets better in clinic where the 1.5mm rule of this and that doesn't count as much..Practice..Practice....you will be fine....
PS I hate dental school, but I think the end is near hopefully!
Trust me it will get better with TIME..I was one of the weak student in Pre-clinic .No one knew it as I barely passed the first half of Operative class.I just didn't get it at first, but latter on things got better on the second half of the class..I stayed late in pre-clinic to improve my skills...Today I'm in clinic dropping boxes left and right and doing my Skills exams way ahead of some of my cut-throat classmates....It gets better in clinic where the 1.5mm rule of this and that doesn't count as much..Practice..Practice....you will be fine....
PS I hate dental school, but I think the end is near hopefully!
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Thank you for this, hahaha. Seriously. Quite a relief.
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Is there anything that you would recommend to a predent to improve manual dexterity for the future?
