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What Does a Dental Assistant Do?

What You Can Expect from This Exciting Career

If you’ve found your way to this post, you’ve probably already given some thought to a career in dental assisting. Maybe you heard about the growth in the field or the comfortable pay. Perhaps you are excited about the idea of working in a dental office with plenty of patient interaction. However, all those things won’t tell you what’s most important to you: how you would spend your days as a dental assistant. There’s no need to wonder anymore. Let us take you through some of the main duties of a dental assistant, so you can decide whether this career is right for you!

Duty 1: Chairside Assistance

As you might have guessed from the name, assisting the dentist in his or her work is the #1 duty of a dental assistant. Dental assistants are right by the dentist’s side as he or she works on the patient. Before the patient comes in, the dental assistant will prepare the room, including sterilizing and laying out any necessary instruments. During the procedure, the dental assistant will supply instruments to the dentist as needed. The assistant can also fabricate temporary crowns or assist in other ways. Afterward, the dental assistant will clean the room and prepare it for the next patient.

Duty 2: Patient Interaction

When a dental assistant isn’t helping the dentist, he or she is often interacting with patients. The dental assistant will often be the smiling face that welcomes a patient into the exam or operating room. He or she will often take the patient’s medical history and go through other important information. Through it all, a dental assistant is focused on making the experience as calming and as pleasant as possible for the patient.

Duty 3: Office Assistance

Let’s start with a caveat: every dentist’s office is different. Some offices staff administrative personnel to handle things like front desk operations and tracking inventory. Others prefer their dental assistants to wear many hats. A dental assistant could easily spend much of his or her day staffing the front desk, ordering new dental supplies, sterilizing instruments, and taking care of other tasks around the office.

Does Dental Assisting Sound Right for You?

Now that you know what a dental assistant does, it’s time for you to answer the most important question: is this career right for you? If you’re still not sure, the friendly staff at Sunrise School of Dental Assisting are here to help you find out. We can tell you more about your career prospects as a dental assistant, the day-to-day duties, and of course the training process.

If dental assisting is the career you would like to pursue the time to act for your future is now. Call us today to learn more about our classes and the exciting career of dental assisting!

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