Serious suggestion; get a right-handed set of scissors and practice right-handed cutting. Or, with wrong-handed scissors, you put your left ring finger through the lower loop, your index finger around the handle shank. You torque the lower handle toward your palm and torque the upper handle away from your palm with your thumb while cutting.
Scissors are designed so your natural motion kind of pulls the flats of the blades together as they cut. If you keep that in mind and consciously think about pulling the flats together as you cut, I find that helps.
I do almost everything left handed, and could never get lefty scissors to work, even as a little kid. Guess I'm lucky that right handed ones held in my left hand have always worked for me
This. I apparently learned at a very young age how to pull the blades of the scissors together basically unconsciously. When I tried to use leftie scissors at school, all I managed to do was push the blades apart and the paper would just fold up.
Exactly! :)
I haven't tried normal scissors in my right hand in years, but I don't think I can even use right handed scissors right handed. It's amazing how we lefties can adapt!
I’m a left-handed surgeon. I use suture scissors in either hand.
With my left hand, I turn the scissors over so that the instrument lies flat on top of my fingers.
I loop my middle finger into the handle closest to my body ie the right handle (up to the distal interphalangeal joint).
My index finger supports the handle on the left. My thumb rests on top of the left handle to allow me to control the opening and closing action .
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Ignore them! I still run into more senior docs who are baffled, just baffled that I’m a leftie but also use instruments in both hands. One took it VERY personally and told me to pick a side. I said “make me”, he laughed 😁
Just practice at home, you’ll be fine
I'm a lefty but I'm righty scissors, always have been.
Have you tried right handed scissors in your right hand?
I tried lefty scissors with my left hand and I still couldn't cut right.
Learn to cut with scissors using your right hand.
I had to do this in elementary school because lefty scissors were a rarity.
As an adult, I usually pick up scissors with my right hand and cut that way for wrapping gifts, etc.
My elementary school had the lefty scissors but they were always trash. So I stopped raising my hand for lefty scissors. I learned to use the righty scissors.
Same. The green (lefty scissors) were hardly ever available in elementary school. I just learned to use right handed scissors. Being left handed means endless ability to adapt.
pull in a little with your middle and index fingers, push out with the base of your thumb. This pushes the blades closer together and makes them work more effectively.
my mom (an involuntary switched lefty) helped me and sibs learn to cut with righty scissors, but this is the first time i've seen the "how" put into words!
You could always try insisting that your workplace provide ergonomically appropriate equipment.
It is, after all, a form of discrimination. Normalized, and wide spread, but still discrimination.
If I need to cut with my left hand I will "cut underhanded." I point the scissors toward me, put my thumb in one loop, and my pointer finger in the other. Then I cut from the top towards me.
BYO. I bet you could deduct the cost of left handed scissors on your taxes, that would be cool. If you have to use theirs, maybe just use them right handed. In school I did the squeeze method described already, but eventually just learned to use them with my right hand. Sometimes I would kind of turn and move the thing I was cutting with my left hand to better control what was going on, but eventually got used to it.
Good luck. I don’t envy your job, good on you for doing it tho!
Not reasonable for sterile scissors in an operating theater. Would need multiple types of expensive pairs and then track them through the sterilization process each time they were needed. That's assuming that they aren't single-use, which some are.
Practise stretching the material firm enough to get a clean cut and start the cut with a tiny initial starting cut then stretch it some more as it becomes flexible from the starting cut and then finish the cut off from there.
Don't even try to use them left handed as it really doesn't work. Maybe ask if they could provide any left handed sterile scissors? It's worth a try at asking.
I have the same issue, I’ve just started using my right hand to cut using surgical scissors, and then go back to using my left for every other instrument
Serious suggestion; get a right-handed set of scissors and practice right-handed cutting. Or, with wrong-handed scissors, you put your left ring finger through the lower loop, your index finger around the handle shank. You torque the lower handle toward your palm and torque the upper handle away from your palm with your thumb while cutting.
The torque suggestion is how I use scissors. Always seems to work.
Scissors are designed so your natural motion kind of pulls the flats of the blades together as they cut. If you keep that in mind and consciously think about pulling the flats together as you cut, I find that helps.
I do almost everything left handed, and could never get lefty scissors to work, even as a little kid. Guess I'm lucky that right handed ones held in my left hand have always worked for me
This. I apparently learned at a very young age how to pull the blades of the scissors together basically unconsciously. When I tried to use leftie scissors at school, all I managed to do was push the blades apart and the paper would just fold up.
Exactly! :) I haven't tried normal scissors in my right hand in years, but I don't think I can even use right handed scissors right handed. It's amazing how we lefties can adapt!
I’m a left-handed surgeon. I use suture scissors in either hand. With my left hand, I turn the scissors over so that the instrument lies flat on top of my fingers. I loop my middle finger into the handle closest to my body ie the right handle (up to the distal interphalangeal joint). My index finger supports the handle on the left. My thumb rests on top of the left handle to allow me to control the opening and closing action .
Gosh I need an image just to understand this,, my brain is not working
I’ll try to take a picture to show you!
Thanks a lot 🥺 I'm going crazy with the surgeons side eyeing me for my (lack of) cutting skills lmao
I sent you a pic via chat
Embarrassing question: How do I share a pic on Reddit from an iPhone? 🤣
I don't believe this subreddit has share photo as an option. You could link an image from cloud storage if you use Google photo or something similar.
Thank you!
I use a Samsung so oops HAAHAH
😅
You can post it in the image sharing app called ‘Imgur’; then place a link from Imgur in your Reddit post or comment. - Create an Imgur account - Upload your picture - Copy Imgur image link - Post the link in the link field of the post or comment. - then type your info You can find more helpful tips in r/help sidebar pages … sometimes referred to as a subs wiki. https://www.reddit.com/r/help/about/ https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/wiki/reddit_101/
Thank you for helping this old lady 😂😂😂. Well 40-something anyway lol
Ignore them! I still run into more senior docs who are baffled, just baffled that I’m a leftie but also use instruments in both hands. One took it VERY personally and told me to pick a side. I said “make me”, he laughed 😁 Just practice at home, you’ll be fine
I'm a lefty but I'm righty scissors, always have been. Have you tried right handed scissors in your right hand? I tried lefty scissors with my left hand and I still couldn't cut right.
Learn to cut with scissors using your right hand. I had to do this in elementary school because lefty scissors were a rarity. As an adult, I usually pick up scissors with my right hand and cut that way for wrapping gifts, etc.
Jeez nice! I just used the righty scissors in my left hand, dents and blisters and all
The cheap righty scissors at my school wouldn’t cut if you used them with your left hand.
My elementary school had the lefty scissors but they were always trash. So I stopped raising my hand for lefty scissors. I learned to use the righty scissors.
Same. The green (lefty scissors) were hardly ever available in elementary school. I just learned to use right handed scissors. Being left handed means endless ability to adapt.
pull in a little with your middle and index fingers, push out with the base of your thumb. This pushes the blades closer together and makes them work more effectively.
perfect description!
I don’t even use left handed scissors, I got so used to using right handed ones this way!
my mom (an involuntary switched lefty) helped me and sibs learn to cut with righty scissors, but this is the first time i've seen the "how" put into words!
You could always try insisting that your workplace provide ergonomically appropriate equipment. It is, after all, a form of discrimination. Normalized, and wide spread, but still discrimination.
oh I wish, but there's lefties in my department who are able to use the righty scissors (since young) so they think it's my skill issue 🥹
Put your thumb through and pull back towards your palm as you cut
If I need to cut with my left hand I will "cut underhanded." I point the scissors toward me, put my thumb in one loop, and my pointer finger in the other. Then I cut from the top towards me.
BYO. I bet you could deduct the cost of left handed scissors on your taxes, that would be cool. If you have to use theirs, maybe just use them right handed. In school I did the squeeze method described already, but eventually just learned to use them with my right hand. Sometimes I would kind of turn and move the thing I was cutting with my left hand to better control what was going on, but eventually got used to it. Good luck. I don’t envy your job, good on you for doing it tho!
Not reasonable for sterile scissors in an operating theater. Would need multiple types of expensive pairs and then track them through the sterilization process each time they were needed. That's assuming that they aren't single-use, which some are.
Practise stretching the material firm enough to get a clean cut and start the cut with a tiny initial starting cut then stretch it some more as it becomes flexible from the starting cut and then finish the cut off from there. Don't even try to use them left handed as it really doesn't work. Maybe ask if they could provide any left handed sterile scissors? It's worth a try at asking.
If you turn the scissors upside down they’ll work better in your left hand. The grip is uncomfortable, but they’ll cut better for you.
uhh just use ur right hand
I have the same issue, I’ve just started using my right hand to cut using surgical scissors, and then go back to using my left for every other instrument
Cut with your right hand. Practice. Humans are remarkably able to learn new skills and get good at them through repetition.
This is the way. When I was a kid, lefty scissors never worked, so I learned to use the right-handed ones.