How easy do you find it aspirating?

You will get use to it, but is really hard id dentist is left handed. I do not see anything in the mouth..

I often find myself duelling with the high speed aspirator and the patients tongue! Most of the time I alternate between the high speed and the saliva ejector, sometimes I use both to trick the tongue into moving in the opposite direction, and sometimes I just look at the dentist, breath deeply and hope for the best!

Hi again, some patients are just plain akward, I bet if you've had a nitemare aspirating the dentist will have also found the patient to be a pain in the neck also. It would be much easier if patients had a flip top head! K

I think you gain confidence the more experience you have but it's not something that I've ever found particularly 'easy' and I've been working as a dental nurse for almost 3 years. Every patient's mouth is different, some completely so. I find some patients a doddle to aspirate on and others can be a nightmare! - tongues constantly diving down the aspirator or trying to push it out. Aspirating is definitely something that sounds easier than it is, unless that's just me! lol x

But, as it goes, there are certain things that residents of urban areas have easier access to. Case in point: variety in medical care. The simple fact is that, given the size and population of urban areas, residents of cities enjoy a greater level of medical choice, and it’s a difference in selection that only becomes more pronounced as we begin to discuss more specialized fields of medicine. dr paul lubitz

Naturally, living in rural, non-urban areas has its advantages. And if you happen to live in a cozy town that buttresses the northern Rocky Mountains and the oldest national park in Canada (the town I’m talking about, if you haven’t guessed, is Canmore, Canada), then you may consider yourself particularly fortunate. Rick Willianen

being good with aspirating comes with practice, everyone is nervous and a bit rubbish at it to begin with, the dentist I worked with first use to tell me where to position the aspirator tip when I first started and to help would use cotton wool rolls so I could place the aspirator tip on this instead of directly on the patients soft tissue.
Eventually you just become good at it, to the point that you can push or pull patients cheeks or tongue out of the way to help retract or help the dentist see as well as actually aspirating.
I've recently started working with a new dentist and he hardly ever uses cotton wool rolls to assist me, and I've found I don't need help anyway. And from time to time every nurse sucks up a tongue or cheek or whatever!!
Are you new to the job or just wondering?

How easy do you find aspirating? Do you find the suction quite strong and always catches the soft tissue? Interested to know what helps any nurses now or even when they started out on managing to aspirate properly?