Everyone knows how to use a handpiece, but holding it in a way to maximize precision is a whole different story.

Doing ideal preparations requires a LOT of precision, and sorry to break it out to you, but the only way to achieve that kind of precision is by starting form the basics. If there’s a barrier between what you want to do and what you end up doing – which will be almost everyone – it’s time to start from the ABCs.

I had to go through this myself just a few years ago, so please don’t feel upset or offended with this. At the time I just wanted to focus on practicing on more teeth, but my mentor drilled me on the way I was using my handpiece, and I was so annoyed by it. At the time (which was during my first application cycle) I got an invitation about 2 weeks before the interview, so I had very little time to do anything, and in my mind, I was supposed to work on more teeth.

So I did what I thought was right, and I failed that year. My preparations were flat-out messy and bad.

The next application cycle came around and when invitations started to come in, I knew I had so much work to do, and as I started to practice I started to understand the importance of the whole using the handpiece correctly thing, it was the basis for everything. Once I got this, I didn’t have to practice that same prep over and over again and again; execution wasn’t too bad anymore.

Without this, you’re rate of improvement will be slow and it’ll hit a wall.

You won’t master this overnight, it takes time and patience. You should always be practicing this whenever you’re prepping a tooth, it’s the only way to gain precision. Once you get a hang of it, you’ll see a steep increase in your skills.

When I first started, I felt like my fingers were somehow crooked and I was anatomically incapable of keeping a steady rest. I really thought so, but I kept on trying, I tried to do something similar because I was convinced it wasn’t possible for me to do it the classic way. Then one day I realized that it was now naturally working for me, and I also realized that my work was good, really good.

So keep coming back to the basics as often as you need, and during every practice don’t just look at your prep, but see how you are holding your handpiece, where your rest is, and be conscious of the angle and movement of your handpiece.

The burs spin and cut tooth structure away very fast, key is precision, and the way to precision is by gaining control.

Practicing Your Hand Skills

Stable hands is the first step towards an ideal preparation. So it is a very good investment to practice and perfect your hand skills first before anything else. More about this matter (a video demo) on to the next section.

Finger Rests

Finger Rests are the foundation of a precise handpiece control. This is the foundation of every preparation that you will be doing. Without solid finger rests, you will definitely not obtain the ideal preparation. The video below demonstrates how to do a very stable finger rests and shows you a good habit on how to handle the handpiece well.