What Does Schooling Look Like for Dental Assistants?
At Dental Essentials, we offer a 10-week course to prepare you in all things dental assisting. The course work covers things that will help you succeed as a dental assistant—oral anatomy, chairside assisting techniques, managing hazardous materials, aseptic techniques, processing radiographs, and other dental assisting techniques. Our schooling provides hands-on training and experience.
Attending school while other things are going on in your life can be challenging—that’s why at Dental Essentials, graduates only need to attend two evening classes a week for ten weeks to complete the course. This is a manageable workload for all of the other things going on in your life—whether it be working, parenting, or something else. You don’t need to drop everything to go back to school; you can start a career, change your life, and significantly impact your family’s future through a certificate in dental assisting.
Chairside Assisting Techniques
As a dental assistant, you spend a lot of time assisting dentists—no surprise there! These assisting techniques are critical to dental procedures. These techniques may include:
- Preparing trays for procedures
- Handling equipment, materials, and instruments
- Tending to patient needs
- Keeping the patient calm
- Applying the suction tool to keep the patient’s mouth dry and clear during dental work
Management of Hazardous Materials
Being able to manage hazardous materials is a crucial skill for any dental assistant. Because you are in a dental office—hazard materials are unavoidable. In the Dental Essentials course, we will go over the Material Safety Data Sheet or MSDS. This helps to prepare assistants to work with hazardous chemicals safely. We will also cover chemical warning label determination and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA. HIPAA covers the security and privacy of medical records—something dental assistants deal with daily.
Aseptic Techniques
Dental Essentials covers the aseptic technique—a method used during dental procedures and surgeries to prevent cross-contamination and infection. This method helps a patient to properly health without other risks to their health. There are strict rules in place to reduce any risk of infection. We will go over the aseptic technique and have you practice procedures using this method.
Identify and Utilize Instruments, Materials, and Equipment
A large part of the duties of a dental assistant includes using dental instruments and equipment. Before the dentist comes in, dental assistants examine the patient’s mouth. The use of instruments such as a sickle probe, burnisher, bitewing, periodontal probe, straight probe, mouth mirrors, cotton forceps, and the briault.
Process Digital Dental Radiographs
Digital radiography has become a valuable part of medicine. We are living in an increasingly more digital world, and just like any industry, dental work has adapted. We’ll train you and all you need to know to process digital dental radiographs.
Basic Dental Assisting Duties
Dental assistant duties will differ from office to office. At Dental Essentials, we want to ensure that you are ready for whatever comes your way. We’ll train you and the essential skills that will help you with any job that you take.