|
If you have strong background including specialized education in the field coupled with the right position, your work as a dental assistant can be your stepping stone to skilled healthcare jobs that pay comparatively more.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF A DENTAL ASSISTANT:
Dental assistants are responsible for performing a range of duties and must either work in close association with the employing dentists or work under their direct supervision.
The main duties of dental assistants consist of office duties like maintaining files, laboratory work and taking care of patients. However their range of duties does not include clinical tasks. The following points will help you understand the duties of a dental assistants:
- If you are a dental assistant, your primary duty will be to take care of your patients. Not only will you be responsible for making them comfortable in their dental chair prior to the treatment, you will have the responsibility of giving them directions on methods of oral health care post-operation or in general. You will also have to maintain the dental records of the patients that visit the clinic.
- If you are a dental assistant, you will be required to assist the dentist in various dental procedures. You will have to keep the mouth of the patient clear and dry with suction devices or other instruments while the dental procedure is on, while also handing the dentists materials as well as instruments required for their work.
- The laboratory duties of dental assistants include making temporary crowns, casts of the mouth as well as casts of teeth, polishing and cleaning removable appliances, etc.
- If you are appointed as a dental assistant in a dental office, your duties would also comprise of making schedules, confirming patients’ appointments, receiving patients and keeping patients’ records, ordering dental materials and keeping a record of the supplies, sending bills and receiving payments, etc.
- Other duties of dental assistants include taking dental x-rays, preparing materials for restorations and dental impressions and processing x-ray films according to the instructions of the dentist. As a dental assistant you are also required to eliminate the sutures, put topical anaesthetics and cavity-preventive substances to gums and teeth respectively, putting rubber dams on patient’s affected teeth in order to segregate them for treatment, take out extra cement put during tooth filling, etc.
- Some states have also added to the list of the duties of dental assistants by including such responsibilities as restorative dentistry tasks and coronal polishing and these functions require certain extra qualifications as well as experience as a pre-requisite.
JOB GROWTH FOR DENTAL ASSISTANTS:
With the increase in dental services, dentistry has become one of the fastest growing professions and is expected to grow at a rate much higher than the average.
With this the work pressure on the dentists is bound to increase and thus more and more dental assistants would be required to take care of the various routine tasks and many other duties as listed above. This throws open many opportunities for budding dental assistants, as there will now be more job openings for them.
Another factor for more openings is that more dental assistants are required to replace those who leave, retire or shift to other professions. Thus more entry-level jobs will be available now. If you are a dental assistant, you can benefit from your job through practice setting and you may even be contingent after getting full-time employment.
According to the survey of American Dental Association, almost a whopping 87% of practising dentists offer the facility of reimbursement to their dentists in order to enable them to continue with their education courses for dental assistance. The salary of a dental assistant can range from $22,700 to $46,150 annually (as given by a 2008 survey).
DENTAL ASSISTANT DUTIES:
The job of the dental assistant generally lies near to the dental chair for they have to arrange the different materials, medication and the instruments and assist the dentist and provide them with these when required. They have to follow safety methods in order to reduce risks that might arise due to using x-ray machines. They have to make sure that their patients are protected from any infectious diseases by using masks, protective clothing, gloves and eyewear. They generally have about 35-40 hours of work and some may even take up part-time wok schedules.
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION FOR ADVANCEMENT IN OPPORTUNITIES:
If you are aspiring to be a dental assistant, you have to keep in mind that having only the basic education in the field doesn’t help if you want to advance in your field. Though you can get on-the-job training, dental assisting programs or an associates degree in the field will help you get into a higher skilled and higher paying job.
Related Dental Assistant Salary Articles:
|
