Tennis.. and dentistry

[ramseszerg]

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Dentistry requires top notch manual dexterity and accuracy. I love to play tennis, it is a life passion of mine. However, after every time I play I can feel RSI (Repeated Stress Injury/Inflammation) slowly building up. When I am using my keyboard after playing tennis (I use the mouse with my left hand to cut down on injury), the tremor is sometimes visibly large in my right arm until I move it to get rid of it. Will I have to give up tennis to excel at dentistry in the future?

p.s. Even though my elbow feels numb, I can still carve soap (for Canadian DAT) okay.

 

[wantVCUdental]

Considering you want dentistry as a career and not tennis, i think you should quit tennis. Any raquet sport can kill your wrist/hand. And once you lose your manual dexterity, you can say bye bye to dentistry.

 

[THINKOFMYFUTURE]

Want speaks the truth.

Don't let that get you down, though, we've all had to give up something at one time or another. There are plenty of other things you can do to prepare yourself.

Personally, I'd consider taking up knitting.

 

[ramseszerg]

****. ****.

 

[slm266]

I dislocated my finger skateboarding and had to go through physical "therapy" to bring my range of motion back to normal just for dentistry. Haven't been on a board since.

I think I've even heard of dentists having over a million $ insurance policy just on their hands in case they ever injured them and were unable to practice.

 

[Tommy43087]

I have been boxing for years, even got into amateurs, and i love it! I wanted to continue, maybe even go pro if i had put more time into it but after cementing the fact of Dentistry being my career i had to give up boxing, EVEN TRAINING!! The physical stress exerted on my hand could not work out if i was trying to take on a career in a field where eye-hand precision is vital... I miss it so much, i swear there are days where i fantasize being in the boxing gym training....But if you wanna have a career in dentistry you must treat your hands like a fragile antique, and keep them in the best shape possible, you will be using them for the rest of your career!

 

[ramseszerg]

What are some sports that are as fun as tennis that have close to zero chance of injuring your hands?

 

[lekso]

What are some sports that are as fun as tennis that have close to zero chance of injuring your hands?

Maybe table tennis. I think there would be less stress on your wrists and it's pretty fun. I really suck at ping pong but still like to play!

 

[askadds]

Dentistry requires top notch manual dexterity and accuracy. I love to play tennis, it is a life passion of mine. However, after every time I play I can feel RSI (Repeated Stress Injury/Inflammation) slowly building up. When I am using my keyboard after playing tennis (I use the mouse with my left hand to cut down on injury), the tremor is sometimes visibly large in my right arm until I move it to get rid of it. Will I have to give up tennis to excel at dentistry in the future?

p.s. Even though my elbow feels numb, I can still carve soap (for Canadian DAT) okay.

if you can name the muscle involved in "Tennis Elbow" you will get a question right on your Anatomy test once your in Dental School. lol 😀

 

[wwdaffodils]

Considering you want dentistry as a career and not tennis, i think you should quit tennis. Any raquet sport can kill your wrist/hand. And once you lose your manual dexterity, you can say bye bye to dentistry.

My dad used to play in an amatuer soccer league as a goalie. He'd come home with these large soccer-ball shaped bruises, and ended up breaking two of his fingers.

Now he plays golf.

 

[Ryltar]

I play racquetball quite a bit and I never really thought about this. I've never had any wrist/elbow pain and I've been playing for about six years. I certainly know racquetball is pretty bad because of the amount of wrist snap that is involved in hitting the ball.

 

[Colos]

I've seen so many people post about giving up one thing for another. Honestly, I'd never give up my weight lifting or playing sports...it's who I am. Your profession is your profession, if something is damaging you that might affect that, take the level your playing at down for a bit and treat an injury right, and then get back into it.
Why miss out on what you love doing, all you'll do is regret it later on in life. Take it as you will, it's your life after all...make the choice you want, not what others say.

 

[wizardsradio]

Learn to play tennis with your left hand... problem solved 🙂

 

[uclaDDS101]

Dentistry requires top notch manual dexterity and accuracy. I love to play tennis, it is a life passion of mine. However, after every time I play I can feel RSI (Repeated Stress Injury/Inflammation) slowly building up. When I am using my keyboard after playing tennis (I use the mouse with my left hand to cut down on injury), the tremor is sometimes visibly large in my right arm until I move it to get rid of it. Will I have to give up tennis to excel at dentistry in the future?

p.s. Even though my elbow feels numb, I can still carve soap (for Canadian DAT) okay.

I don't think you would have to give up tennis. Maybe you shouldn't have to give it up, but rather just improve your technique. Tennis definitely shouldn't make your arm hurt like that. Much of your force should be be coming from your core. Anything distal to your shoulder should not be stressed. If by "RSI", you are more specifically referring to symptoms corresponding with "tennis elbow" (lateral epicondylitis), then this ailment is a classic case of misusing your forearm on your groundstroke swings. On neither of your groundstrokes should you have a flexed forearm. Try to keep it relaxed. Especially on your backhand, many people try to use a shorter swing to just "muscle" the ball back. Just use a full and relaxed swing, and practice your timing. You'll actually generate more power and spin in addition to staying injury-free.

I know this is a lot to say without ever having seen you play, so if i'm totally off-base, disregard the advice. In any case, feel confident that you don't have to give up one of your passions (tennis) for another (dentistry).

(BTW, if i absolutely had to choose between tennis and practicing dentistry,.... TENNIS WINS HANDS DOWN. I guess I'd just fully turn to academia at that point. no biggie)

 

[bhind]

I've seen so many people post about giving up one thing for another. Honestly, I'd never give up my weight lifting or playing sports...it's who I am. Your profession is your profession, if something is damaging you that might affect that, take the level your playing at down for a bit and treat an injury right, and then get back into it.
Why miss out on what you love doing, all you'll do is regret it later on in life. Take it as you will, it's your life after all...make the choice you want, not what others say.

👍 Well said.

 

[wantVCUdental]

Learn to play tennis with your left hand... problem solved 🙂

A dentist needs both of his hands...
if you are a guy, tie the raquet to your "third leg"...

 

[Vicviper]

Talk to a physician, see what they say. Unless you're playing tennis non-stop all day for days on end, I don't think it would be a major problem - but boxing maybe. I've often heard of lifting as a problem related to manual dexterity, and I've heard people say that they've had to cut down a bit to not risk their hands, but that doing some not crazy lifting after the day is done won't kill you.

On the part of insurance, yeah, you insure your hands like crazy go nuts - we have it built into our tuition. At school I noticed that we've all started stopping elevator doors with out feet instead of our hands, hehe. I'd much rather be a dentist with a hobble than not at all, hehehe.

 

[DentalDuck]

The tremor that the op is talking about is not tennis elbow. Tennis elbow is kind of painful, this is just an annoying shake with some loss in grip strength. What you need to do is fix your stroke mechanics like uclaDDS101 said and you also need to hit the weight room, doing mostly low weight/high rep stuff. If you do it right you'll never have to quit.

 

[bigstix808]

Dentistry requires top notch manual dexterity and accuracy. I love to play tennis, it is a life passion of mine. However, after every time I play I can feel RSI (Repeated Stress Injury/Inflammation) slowly building up. When I am using my keyboard after playing tennis (I use the mouse with my left hand to cut down on injury), the tremor is sometimes visibly large in my right arm until I move it to get rid of it. Will I have to give up tennis to excel at dentistry in the future?

p.s. Even though my elbow feels numb, I can still carve soap (for Canadian DAT) okay.

before dental school i played ~20 hrs a week. now that i'm in school i MIGHT play 4-5 hrs a week. i used to have bad elbow/shoulder problems from being a gymnast and vball player and i just keep up the PT keeping my rotator mucles strong (boone series, etc). if you stretch, warm up, and stretch when you're done you should be able to keep playing. i used to play tennis with my dentist and her son quite regularly and she never had any problems. just listen to your body and don't over do it.

however, i will be having carpal tunnel surgery on both hands next summer (but this is more from being a gymnast than from tennis)

don't give up the stick yet, tennis is a great sport!😎

 

[ramseszerg]

The tremor that the op is talking about is not tennis elbow. Tennis elbow is kind of painful, this is just an annoying shake with some loss in grip strength. What you need to do is fix your stroke mechanics like uclaDDS101 said and you also need to hit the weight room, doing mostly low weight/high rep stuff. If you do it right you'll never have to quit.

Wow you are so right. I don't think there's anything wrong with my technique other than when I get lazy with my feet and I have to improvise with my hands. I'll try the low weight high rep stuff. Is there a name for what I have, or any links online I can look at?

Thanks everyone for your thoughts!