What do Dental Assistants do on a Daily Basis?
Dental assistants, like medical assistants, support the administrative functions of a dentist’s office. Their usual duties include maintaining records and databases, cleaning, sterilizing, and preparing dental equipment, handling patient scheduling, and processing payments and invoices, among other administrative functions. Let’s take a look at what else dental assistants do in their job duties.
What Dental Assistants Do
You could consider dental assistants as the “face” of a dentist’s practice. They’re usually the first person to greet you when you walk in, and they’re almost always the last person you speak to when you walk out. However, a dental assistant is far more than a receptionist; they handle everything from all the money that comes in and out, to preparing patients for the hygienist and dentist to see them. A good dental assistant ought to be sociable and well-organized in order to succeed in this field.
How much variety is there in dental assisting? Well, here’s a list of their typical responsibilities:
- Ensuring the patient is comfortable before the dentist or hygienist arrives
- Sterilizing dental equipment and preparing the work area
- Being present to hand instruments to the dentist during procedures and monitor equipment
- Using a suction or air hose to keep the patient’s mouth dry during procedures
- Taking, processing, and storing oral X-ray images, under a dentist’s direction
- Maintaining patient records
- Scheduling appointments with patients
- Handling billing and payments to and by the practice
- Teaching patients about good oral hygiene
What Dental Assistants Cannot Do
While dental assistants are legally allowed to perform basic oral health procedures in some, but not all, states, they are neither trained nor permitted to perform more complex or invasive ones. They cannot clean teeth – that’s a dental hygienist’s job which requires specialized oral health training (in fact, oral hygiene and dental assisting require different associate degrees), nor can they do anything that would require the use of a dental pick or a drill.
That being said, exactly what duties a dental assistant may or may not do varies by state. For instance, any dental assistant in Missouri may perform X-rays, while you must be state certified in radiography to do so in California. Most states also have at least one level of “expanded-function” dental assistants (EFDA), who are permitted to do more hands-on work with patients, such as monitoring and administering nitrous oxide, polishing teeth, applying fluoride, and applying sealants to teeth. Again, what exactly an EFDA may do varies from state to state.
If you’re curious about your own state’s rules, the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB) maintains a list of requirements for each state in the USA. It includes certification, education, and on-the-job training requirements for each state, if they have any.
Training to Become a Dental Assistant
While dentists and hygienists in some offices can help out with basic things, they often don’t have the expertise in administrative functions like billing and coding, record keeping, and information technology. They need to focus on serving patients anyway – that’s how a dentist’s office makes money, after all. As a dental assistant, a dentist’s practice would rely on you to run their day-to-day operations.
To become a dental assistant, you need both an associate degree in the subject, and a certification to validate your skills. Once you have these credentials and have worked in the field for a while, you can opt to return to school or earn more credentials.
Are you interested in becoming a dental assistant?
If you’re thinking about earning your Associate of Applied Science Degree in Health Science with a focus on Dental Assisting, consider ECPI University for your educational needs. To start the conversation, connect with a friendly admissions advisor today.
It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
DISCLAIMER – ECPI University makes no claim, warranty, or guarantee as to actual employability or earning potential to current, past or future students or graduates of any educational program we offer. The ECPI University website is published for informational purposes only. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information contained on the ECPI.edu domain; however, no warranty of accuracy is made. No contractual rights, either expressed or implied, are created by its content.
For more information about ECPI University or any of our programs click here: http://www.ecpi.edu/ or http://ow.ly/Ca1ya.