Considering A Dental Assistant Career? Articles | Dentist Career

By: DentistCareers.net

Dental assistants (sometimes known as dental nurses or dental chairside assistants) are key members of the dental health care team. They assist dentists and other members of the oral health team to deliver high quality dental care in dental offices. Qualified dental assistants, with further study, can also advance through other dental auxiliary roles such as a dental hygienist or dental technician and prosthetist.
With tertiary qualifications you could also train to perform a dentist career.

If you are considering a dental assistant career you should:

Take high school courses in health, sciences, English, mathematics, speech and psychology
Apply for work experience in a dental practice or community dental clinic
Like working with your hands
Be of a reliable and responsible character
Communicate well and enjoy assisting people
To provide information and education to people of all ages, races and gender
To instil motivation toward healthy goals
To be sensitive to the needs of others
Be able to concentrate and follow instructions
To learn new skills and apply knowledge
To work accurately in a fast-paced environment
Have good organisational and time management skills
Enjoy working with others in a team environment
Be interested in the delivery of oral health care


Where do dental assistants work?

Dental assistant employment opportunities are numerous and offer women and men of all ages, races and ethnic backgrounds a choice of dentistry work settings.

General dentistry practice: This type of dental practice represents the majority of dental practices in both the public and private sectors offering a full range of dental services to restore, replace and straighten teeth as well as provide preventive services to save and protect teeth. The dental assistant’s role in this type of practice will have the greatest variety of duties in a team environment that in addition to working with the dentist they may also work with specialist dentists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, dental technicians and dental prosthetists. The general dental practice can be either a solo (one dentist) or group (two or more dentists) practice.

Specialty dentistry practice: This type of dental practice concentrates its services to a specialised area of oral health care, which can be periodontics, paediatric dentistry, endodontics, orthodontics, prosthodontics and oral surgery. The specialist practices require a team approach to achieve quality outcomes, which demands an intense focus by the dental assistant on precision of specific duties.

Community or school-based public dental health clinic: The Community dental clinics in regional and rural areas provide routine and emergency dental services for eligible adults who hold a Pension card, Health Care card or Seniors card. Patients are on waiting lists to be seen. The school dental clinics aim to ensure that children have the opportunity to reach adulthood with good oral health and to develop the skills to maintain it. The dental assistant performs a variety of clinical duties and works as a team with dentists and dental therapists to educate and motivate the community in the principles of preventive dentistry and responsibility for their own oral health.