Tech: September 2007 Archives
My fellow blogger at http://www.dmdstudent.com/ mentioned briefly that he had ordered some loupes. Now, there are several companies that supply loupes with different designs and quallity of lens, but that's really not important. What is important is that you use them. "Why," you ask? Because you can, because most dentists do [making it a standard of care], and because you want to be better at what you do [we hope].
There are many benefits to using loupes, especially as a dental student. At Case, they were included in our first year instrument kit. They took some time to get used to, but nothing ridiculous. Though, I will say that I wouldn't want anyone working on me the first time they put a pair of loupes on. Using them for waxing, and the sim-lab, even on our sealant rotation helped to visualize exactly what I was doing.
It wasn't long before I wanted to see things even bigger... I would find myself leaning in over the patient trying to get things as close as I could. There was some back pain, and after 20 minutes or so, I'd catch myself leaning in again. Then, at a vendor fair, I tried on a pair of 4.8x loupes. Wow, were things big.
Now, some will say that you should step up from 2.5 to 3.3 to 4.0 to 4.5+... That is too much time spent adjusting, and too much money spent in upgrades. Do it once, and do it big. After spending a year with my new loupes, I am completely satisfied, my posture is better [thanks to a narrow working length], and my work is limited by my hands not my eyes.
