How Important Is Manual Dexterity: Your Hands Are Your Lifeline

As Dental Surgeons, we might take what our hands do for us for granted. There is a reason why they are called “Healing Hands”, and how they help us give high quality treatment to our patients.

I remember, when I was in college, I fractured my right hand, at the peak time of us finally getting to convert and treat patients.Our excitement level was sky high, and, finally, we had a Quota and we were getting to touch a patient after 3 long years of observation. All I could do was convert patients and give them to my colleagues, or sit and watch, while others got A, A++ Grades on their scaling. Man that could have been my grade book ,it was frustrating. That was the first time I realised the importance of Hands. My precious, precious hands. Whether you’re charting, scaling teeth, polishing or drafting chart notes, you are constantly and willingly ‘hands-on’.

However, most of the time, you don’t even think about how to get steady hands; you just perform your job as expected. Working in the limited space of a patient’s mouth requires a high degree of precision. For this reason, it is essential that your manual dexterity is developed and doesn’t waiver, in order for you to be effective and confident every day.

                        

Here’s how to get steady hands through numerous fun activities that also indulge your creative side.

Try Something New:

                      

Being a dental surgeon requires you to know exactly where an instrument is going, before you even pick it up. All those of you, who have been practicing for long, or if you have observed your professors work, they use their hands with such dexterity and precision, most of it is just muscle memory; their hands remember where to place a file and where to find a calcified canal, and believe me, I am not kidding, this happens.

There are many activities, outside your workplace, that allow you to further develop these skills, while having a little fun at the same time. Hobbies such as fine painting, cake decorating and jewelry-making all require the hand-eye coordination you need. These types of activities also allow you to share and show off your skills to others in a way you can’t inside the office ;p.

Get Artistic:

                                           

Another key part of having steady hands is continually improving your fine motor skills. Activities such as painting, sketching and sculpting help you to express yourself through what your hands can create, as well as fine-tune your hand movements. If a certain genre of music interests you, brush up on, or learn, an available instrument, such as the piano or guitar, both of which increase fine motor skills. Remember, every movement matters and is purposeful in some way when meeting with a patient. Whatever result you create with your hands is an expression of you.

Takeaways:

• Pick up a new hobby to keep your hands in action
• Crafts like painting, sketching, knotting take a lot of manual dexterity and focus.
• You can improve your fine motor skills with artistic pursuits like sculpting.

         

 Why It’s Valuable:

                              

Your hands are your lifeline in dentistry. When your fine motor skills are developed to their fullest potential, calculus is removed more effectively with less chance of tissue injury, you elevate a tooth steadily, your moments are stable and focused. Patients will appreciate your steady hands. By keeping your hands working as smoothly and efficiently as possible, you can solidify your role with patients as the dentist with the trusted touch, or,how we say here in India “has light hands”,(which basically means delivers painless treatment)

                                   

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