do your fingers tense up after carving for awhile?

[Guest smooth operater]

Hello guys.

 

I have been practicing carving madly recently since I kinda slacked off my summer by during things outside of school. Whenever I have carved over 30 min. my fingers start to feel all tense up and I can see blue veins appearing on my hands. But after taking a break for 10 min. my hands return to normal again just with a sore right arm.

 

Does anyone of you experience this after carving for awhile? Does your fingers become more relax as you practice more? I am kinda afraid this problem may presist that I may have trouble working with my hand for long time once in dental school.

[Guest uoft2005]

My hands get sweaty after 20-30min and i have problem with the grip. Other than that, I don't experience muscles getting tense and what not.

[Guest Dent08]

Make sure you are carving in a position where both your arms are supported on the table in front of you for stability. If your forearms are getting tired, you may be gripping the knife too tight. Ease up on the death grip.

 

Take a few seconds to put down your soap and clench and relax your hands to get the circulation going.

 

Perhaps one of those stress balls would help with your arms and hands. Maybe you're just not used to using those muscles and need to work them a bit.

[Guest predentalguy]

make sure u dont crack ur knuckles.. its the cause to pain in the joints and tensing of the fingers... i would avoid using those stress balls.. and just relax ur fingers ... i have the exact same thing too .. we just need good intervals of rest .... make sure that u keep ur fingers relaxed the day before ur DAT and dont play any football hahaha..

 

cheers

[Guest slysniper]

I sometimes feel like my hands are shaky, but this has never caused a problem when I carve. However, I am worried that maybe it would get worse during the exam. Any advice on what to take? maybe vitamins or something?

 

Thanks.

[Guest wishywish82]

For sweaty hands powder them like 15-20 mins before you do the carving & give the powder time to get soaked up by the skin. Just do the same before you do the carving on DAT day the carving is done first so the powder will still be on your hands.

[Guest excitotox]

After a while, I also found that my hands got sweaty. To avoid this, I wore lab gloves during the exam (I figured you wear gloves in the profession anyway). If you plan on wearing gloves like I did, make sure that it is allowed. The rules might have changed in the last year or two.

 

I agree with Dent08, ease up on the death grip. The very last thing you want is to break your piece of soap in half during the exam.

 

Good luck.