The Dental Assistant assists dentist at the chair set up patient and equipment, keeps records, and perform related duties as required.
The Dental Assistant does the following tasks:
- The Dental Assistant prepares patient, sterilizes and disinfects instruments, sets up instrument trays, prepares materials, and assists dentist during dental procedures.
- The Dental Assistant takes and records medical and dental histories and vital signs of patients.
- The Dental Assistant records treatment information in patient records.
- The Dental Assistant assists dentist in management of medical and dental emergencies.
- The Dental Assistant exposes dental diagnostic x-rays.
- The Dental Assistant applies protective coating of fluoride to teeth.
- The Dental Assistant provides postoperative instructions prescribed by dentist.
- The Dental Assistant makes preliminary impressions for study casts and occlusal registrations for mounting study casts.
- The Dental Assistant pours, trims, and polishes study casts.
- The Dental Assistant cleans and polishes removable appliances.
- The Dental Assistant instructions patients in oral hygiene and plaque control programs.
- The Dental Assistant schedules appointments, prepares bills and receives payment for dental services, completes insurance forms, and maintains records, manually or using computer.
- The Dental Assistant cleans teeth, using dental instruments.
- The Dental Assistant fabricates temporary restorations and custom impressions from preliminary impressions.
The Skills required for a Dental Assistant:
- The Dental Assistant needs to be able to adjust actions in relation to others’ action.
- The Dental Assistant needs the ability to manage time their own and that of others.
- The Dental Assistant listens to what other people are saying and asking questions as appropriate.
- The Dental Assistant needs the ability to talk to others to effectively convey information.
- The Dental Assistant needs skills finding ways to structure or classify multiple pieces of information. While they remain actively looking for ways to help people.
- The Dental Assistant determines the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- The Dental Assistant must have understanding in their reading comprehension of written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- The Dental Assistant must be able to communicate effectively with others in writing as indicated by the needs of the audience.
- The Dental Assistant must have the capability to teach others how to do something.
- The Dental Assistant must know how to identifying the nature of problems and then find a resolve for the situation.
- The Dental Assistant must be capable of inspecting and evaluating the quality of products and making sure that everything is alright.
- The Dental Assistant must be able to using mathematics to solve problems.
- The Dental Assistant needs good judgment and decision making skills.
- The Dental Assistant needs to be able to control operations of equipment or system.
- The Dental Assistant needs to be aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react the way they do.
- The Dental Assistant needs to know how to find information and identifying essential information.
- The Dental Assistant identifying the things that must be changed is achieving a goal.
- The Dental Assistant uses critical thinking methods as using logic and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.
- The Dental Assistant assesses how well one is doing when learning or doing something in order to know if the patient is capable of following instructions in their own personal dental care.
- The Dental Assistant must be able to reorganize information to get a better approach to problems or tasks in order to better help patients and make improvements in the dental office.
- The Dental Assistant needs to be able to train others on staff having them understand written directions as well as oral instructions.
- The Dental Assistant must be able to take instruction from the dentist both in written format and in oral instruction.
- The Dental Assistant is required to maintain the front desk at times greeting the incoming patients, setting appointments, and doing a variety of jobs pertaining to front end office and patient care.
- The Dental Assistant is often required to read the x-rays, help out in the making of casts for dental work such as dentures, or specialty pieces for the patient’s mouth.