Loading…
2
I used to roll my eyes at stretching before cleanings, then my wrist gave out on a Tuesday
I always thought the hand stretches they made us do in hygiene school were a waste of five minutes, so I skipped them for basically 6 years straight. Last Tuesday at the office I was scaling a patient's lower molars (a heavy tartar case, 45 minutes of the same grip) and my right thumb just quit on me mid-stroke. The dentist sent me to a hand guy in Dayton who asked one question, "do you stretch before work," and when I said no he just looked at me. Now I do the dumb wrist curls with a rubber band before every patient and the ache is mostly gone. Curious if anyone here has a stretching routine for their hands, or did you have to wait until something actually broke first?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
bailey.jennifer1mo ago
Did the hand guy actually tell you the rubber band curls would fix the thumb, or was it more about not death gripping the scaler for 45 minutes straight? Because from what I've read, stretching alone doesn't do much if your grip is still maxed out the whole time. The band work builds up the other muscles in your hand and forearm, but the real win is switching up how you hold the instrument and taking breaks between quadrants. If you keep white knuckling through heavy tartar cases, the ache will probably come back no matter how many stretches you do. Not trying to be a know it all, I just had a similar thing happen with my index finger and the stretches were only half the fix.
3