Weak hands and dentistry

[toothhype]

I was wondering if there are any students who started dental school with weak hands and dexterity and developed strength as a student? I am highly interested in dentistry but am afraid of wrist pain as I cant write for long periods of time without pain in my hands and wrist, if so what did you do build up strength?

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[Saddleshoes]

am afraid of wrist pain as I cant write for long periods of time without pain in my hands and wrist,

I would ask you to evaluate your pen/pencil grip!

I find young adults have not been taught the proper pen and/or pencil grip in school. As a result they write in a "cramped" style which will indeed cause hand and wrist pain. In the past 25 years schools have dropped teaching of penmanship in favor of "key boarding". I find my young hygienists and young dentist do not know how to hold a pen like instrument. It drives us old timers crazy that we have to show young adults how to hold a dental instrument.

 

[Kahr]

I was wondering if there are any students who started dental school with weak hands and dexterity and developed strength as a student? I am highly interested in dentistry but am afraid of wrist pain as I cant write for long periods of time without pain in my hands and wrist, if so what did you do build up strength?

Dexterity was never an issue personally. Hand strength on the other hand (no pun intended) was. Advice I was given was doing some light weight training with free weights to improve grip and hand strength. What I more actively did was not push myself. I found that giving myself short breaks to stretch and relax my hands helped the most. Over time, simply operating more and more, I developed more stamina and strength. If I ignored the tightness or pain I would pay the price and develop cramps.

Another thing to consider is technique, when using a hand piece or an instrument like an elevator or curette, have a faculty member evaluate how you're employing and holding them. This may require multiple events of evaluation, you can't expect to handle these instruments well after one mentoring.

Finally, gloves. Are your gloves too small? You may want to experiment with different size gloves before sticking to one. Remember that standard exam gloves and sterile gloves are sized differently, and the same goes with brands.

Best of luck!

I would ask you to evaluate your pen/pencil grip!

I find young adults have not been taught the proper pen and/or pencil grip in school. As a result they write in a "cramped" style which will indeed cause hand and wrist pain. In the past 25 years schools have dropped teaching of penmanship in favor of "key boarding". I find my young hygienists and young dentist do not know how to hold a pen like instrument. It drives us old timers crazy that we have to show young adults how to hold a dental instrument.

I had never considered this, but I believe there might be some truth here as I was of the generation just transitioning to typing being more the norm than writing, and did in fact feel I had hand issues during dental school.

 

[toothhype]

I would ask you to evaluate your pen/pencil grip!

I find young adults have not been taught the proper pen and/or pencil grip in school. As a result they write in a "cramped" style which will indeed cause hand and wrist pain. In the past 25 years schools have dropped teaching of penmanship in favor of "key boarding". I find my young hygienists and young dentist do not know how to hold a pen like instrument. It drives us old timers crazy that we have to show young adults how to hold a dental instrument.

Dexterity was never an issue personally. Hand strength on the other hand (no pun intended) was. Advice I was given was doing some light weight training with free weights to improve grip and hand strength. What I more actively did was not push myself. I found that giving myself short breaks to stretch and relax my hands helped the most. Over time, simply operating more and more, I developed more stamina and strength. If I ignored the tightness or pain I would pay the price and develop cramps.

Another thing to consider is technique, when using a hand piece or an instrument like an elevator or curette, have a faculty member evaluate how you're employing and holding them. This may require multiple events of evaluation, you can't expect to handle these instruments well after one mentoring.

Finally, gloves. Are your gloves too small? You may want to experiment with different size gloves before sticking to one. Remember that standard exam gloves and sterile gloves are sized differently, and the same goes with brands.

Best of luck!

I had never considered this, but I believe there might be some truth here as I was of the generation just transitioning to typing being more the norm than writing, and did in fact feel I had hand issues during dental school.

Thank you for your valuable input! I recently was writing and pressing on the paper and it caused me a lot of pain in my forearm and wrist so i was trying to avoid that for future lol