Letters to the Editor

I trained at Bristol Dental School and graduated in 1974 as a left-handed dentist. The Dental Hospital provided us sinistrals with left-handed chairs to operate on. These were the very old Sterling ‘sit up and beg’ units with the scalloped instrument table and the very daunting overhead drill looming over the patient. They did, however, allow me to operate on the wrong side of the patient. They were a far cry from the modern ambidextrous systems available today.

The problem arose when I left the halcyon days of dental school, went into the wide world and tried to find employment. There were no surgeries available with left-handed chairs and the principals were loath to spend any money providing one when there were plenty of ‘normal’ applicants for the position, especially in a city with a Dental School disgorging the newly qualified.

The only solution available was to take up a position in a surgery and become right-handed. This took me about two weeks to accomplish with great care and much perspiring. I must admit that I am not entirely left-handed. Anything artistic, such as writing, painting, etc I do with my left but play all sports with my right, so there must be some confusion within my two cerebral hemispheres. The result was that I became totally ambidextrous in my profession. The advantages are amazing. To give an IDB to the patient's right side with your own left hand is a boon. My nurse soon learnt to move out of the way when a left arm came around the patient's head to do buccal restorations on upper and lower righ molars.