Will this severely affect my ability to practice as a dentist?

[nborto1]

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Hey guys,

So I was recently accepted to dental school back in March and I wanted to ask the Dental students about this because of your direct experience. I was born with a fold in my retina which makes me almost legally blind in one eye (it is hardly of any use). My vision in my other eye is perfectly fine other than wearing contacts. Obviously this can only hurt me rather than help me but I was wondering if my lack of depth perception would significantly hinder my ability to learn and perform dental procedures.

I also wanted to add that I have always been more adept at art then many other students and very good with visual details regarding size and shape (24 PAT) despite my vision problem. In fact I was actually drawn to dentistry because of my skills with such artistic elements. I would imagine that depth perception plays an extremely small if any role in practicing dentistry due to the small size of objects I'll be dealing with but I honestly have no way to tell for sure. So my question to all of you with your experience is how will this affect things for me? Is there a specific area I'll be lacking in when trying to practice dentistry or will I be hurting all around? Or will this potentially have very little affect on my ability to be a great dentist? Please be honest. If you think I need to change careers let me know! 😱

Thank you, I appreciate all opinions about this 🙂

 

[dentaldawg32]

I'm assuming you've assisted a dentist before, that should give you a pretty good idea of whether or not you can handle the fine motor skills needed as a dentist.

 

[solstice]

It will be a hard question for anyone to answer unless if someone has tried to work on patient with one eye closed for long enough to know the difference and stimulates your situation. From what you say about Art and your PAT you are good at 2Ds. Have you tried anything 3D, like sculpting? eventhough I am not sure how much of a 3D skills a general dentist would need.
Remember that brain is a very flexible organ. You may overcome the problem with practice.

 

[nborto1]

Yes, I have done some assisting, though it was very limited. I spent most of my time as a front desk worker at a nearby dentist's office which wasn't enough experience to allow me to get a good feel for what kind of 3D perception is required as a Dentist.

As far as art sense goes, yes I have more experience with drawing, painting, and working in 2D. I feel that I can handle sculpting well also though. But the big difference between art class and an operatory is being able to pick up the object that I'm working on and examine it from all angles. With patients, it's hard to get this kind of perspective. I am confident in my manual dexterity ability and even my sculpting ability to do very well. I was just wondering specifically what role depth perception will play in dentistry and if being without it could be detrimental or not.

 

[AlcoHulk]

Depth perception plays a huge role in dentistry... any kind of preparation you do requires being able to tell how deep you went.

However in your situation, I wouldn't worry too much about it since you seem to be adept at art. Also, keep in mind that you were born with the abnormality so you've likely compensated for it in one way or another. If you're confident in your manual dexterity, then you will be able to "feel" what you're doing. Alot of dentistry is tactile feel, so I think you'll be fine.

My advice is: You got in and want to be a dentist, so don't back out now 🙂

Yes, I have done some assisting, though it was very limited. I spent most of my time as a front desk worker at a nearby dentist's office which wasn't enough experience to allow me to get a good feel for what kind of 3D perception is required as a Dentist.

As far as art sense goes, yes I have more experience with drawing, painting, and working in 2D. I feel that I can handle sculpting well also though. But the big difference between art class and an operatory is being able to pick up the object that I'm working on and examine it from all angles. With patients, it's hard to get this kind of perspective. I am confident in my manual dexterity ability and even my sculpting ability to do very well. I was just wondering specifically what role depth perception will play in dentistry and if being without it could be detrimental or not.

 

[papadent]

Congrats on your acceptance.
However, you might wanna check with the state regulations/ADA/etc. to see if you will be qualified as a licensed dental practitioner once you graduate.
if the dental school knows about your condition, and admitted you knowingly, there may not be a problem, but you don't want to go through all of dental school only to find out that you won't be able to become licensed in the end.

I wish you the best.

 

[nborto1]

Thanks for all your comments, I really appreciate the encouragement. I honestly never gave this a thought before until I was accepted. That is also a very interesting point you made papadent and I wonder where I can find such information about licensing? It's one thing to feel hindered while practicing dentistry, it's quite another to not be able to obtain a license at all!!