I finally got my (ridiculously overpriced) surgical loupes this weekend that I ordered before winter break. As the trend in dentistry the last dozen or so years has been to remove less and less of the natural tooth structure, my already-failing eye sight just wasn't making the cut. The magnification is 2.5x which counts for a lot when you're drilling a 1.5 x 2 mm hole in a tooth upside down and in a mouth with water spraying everywhere while looking at it through a mirror. I'll be practicing drilling and filling with my loupes on for the first time in the lab tomorrow afternoon. (note: perhaps more terrifying than my evil, magnified gaze in this photo is the inexcusably unruly state of my eyebrows. Yikes.)