Loz, in my experience one doesn't normally get a "nick" from a table saw one gets rudimentary, very effective and unplanned surgery!
There for the grace of god go i benny, had a few escapades with stanley knives and took 3mm off with my thumb with an electric planer etc but never with my saws , , one of my lads cut all four finger down to the bone on my saw around 5 years ago , its got a 90 tooth laminate blade in it so very very sharp but the teeth are close together which kinda prevents your fingers from getting dragged into the blade , where as ripping blades have a lot less teeth and litterally drag your fingers into the blade ,
Worst was he was my fireman mates son , told him never to pull the offcut away untill 5 secs after the blade had stopped moving , because you cant see the teeth , yep thats what he did the opposite , thank god it wasn't any worse , he gave up kitchen fitting after that and started as an electrician
regards loz