Nathan Franco 1

Haslam, Period 2
Dental Assistant

I am planning to work in the Dental Field as a Dental Assistant. I'll go over the roles as
how Dental Assistants help in the dental office. I'll explain why they can do a lot but are limited
due to not receiving/acquiring certain licenses. Listing some of the qualities and requirements
that need to be met. The position of Dental Assistant is very important when starting out because
it is kind of the building blocks that lead to roles such as a Dentist, a Pediatric Dentist and a
Orthodontist. The position of Dental Assistants grew from a need of more dental staff and as aid
to the dentist. I'll also explain why a job such as Dental Assisting can be so beneficial to both you
and others in the community.
First, I'm explaining what a Dental Assistant does, which pretty much explains itself but
they assist the dentist or other specialist. They are a important member of the dental healthcare
team. There are also many different kinds of them: Clinical Dental Assistant, Sterilization
Assistant and Expanded-Functions Dental Assistant (EFDA). Clinical Assistants are involved
directly with the patient, they help with the operations. Clinical Assistants are usually chairside,
which involves sitting opposite the doctor and helping operate on the patient. They could also be
circulating assistant which help greet and dismiss patients from the dental office, clean the
patients area and on very few occasions help with both the doctor and the chairside assistant.
Sterilization Assistants are there to help sterilize the office and get rid of the risk of spreading
infection and disease. They sterilize the tools, get rid of bio-hazardous materials, and take care of
sterilization reports. The EFDA assistant is one who has extra training and education in another
field and can legally perform more duties than your average assistant.

Nathan Franco 2
Haslam, Period 2
What tasks a Dental Assistant can do is quite a big list in my eyes. The things they can do
vary by state laws and regulations, a few of the things they can only do under direct supervision
from the doctor because of this I'm only going to mention the duties that assistants in Utah can
perform by themselves. Alone they can perform extra-oral duties for example, clean or sterilize;
they can operate oral radiography also known as taking x-rays, if they have certification to do so;
perform measurements for orthodontic procedures; coronal polishing; fluoride application; and
topical anesthetic application. Assistants do a lot of the prep work for patients and for me I'm
completely okay with that!
There are guidelines and requirements that are necessary for anyone to be a dental
assistant. A lot of states require that you get a license to be a dental assistant, Utah is NOT one of
them so no test or anything. Dental Assisting also doesn't require any sort of degree or certificate.
It is recommended that you get something that says you're qualified so that your employer knows
that you can do your job correctly, or be like me and Job Shadow and/or get a externship. You
also have to act professional while doing your job. It's not that hard be well groomed, stay in
good health, act appropriate and probably the most important be sensitive to the patient, you
don't want a patient to have a bad relationship with the office due to a bad experience. The dress
wear required for this job is either scrubs or on occasion surgical gowns. Employees with long
hair also have to have it tied up, nobody wants hair dangling in their face or mouth! If you are a
assistant it's best not to say anything or do anything that would offend the patient. One of the
TOP rules that is in the office is patient confidentiality! Exposing any personal info is against the
law and can embarrass the person or leave them open to be targeted.
One thing that this job does is open more opportunities for an individual. Being in a
dental office already you grow and develop relationships with the patients and staff.

Nathan Franco 3
Haslam, Period 2
These relationships can help if you want to start your own practice or want to progress into
different areas of dentistry. There are many other jobs that help in the dental field, here's just a
few; Dental public health, develops policies about oral health; Endodontic, involves diagnosis
and treatment of diseases/injuries of the tooth; Oral and maxillofacial surgery, surgery that deals
with the jaw and/or skull areas; Pathologist, studies the diseases of the mouth area; Orthodontics,
prevention of malocclusion to the teeth and many more!
Further more here is a brief history of how dentistry and dental assistants came to be.
From early history, mankind has suffered from dental pain and various cures and methods were
developed to ease the pain. Dentistry today for many is seems new and shiny but skulls of 9th
century Mayans have teeth inlayed with gold and jade. The earliest known "Dentist" by today's
standards was in Egypt, 3000-2151 BC, by the name of Hesi-Re. In 460-322 BC people wrote
books containing info about tooth decay and later restored them with gold crowns. Horace Wells
(1815-1848) is the first man to use nitrous oxide, laughing gas, for relief of dental pain that we
still use in today's offices. C. Edmund Kells (1856-1928) was the first dentist credited with
employing the first dental assistant. The first assistant was Malvina Cueria and was called, "lady
in attendance," and because of her women were allowed to visit an office without their husband
or a companion. Later Juliette A. Southard, a devoted Dental Assistant, wanted to form a dental
assistant community. She struggled to break down boarders and eventually in 1924 she became
the founder and president of the American Dental Assistants Association. From there it has
grown to what it is today, a massively useful position that many are grateful for.
Finally you may start thinking what are the perks of being a dental assistant? Well the
median annual wage for a dental assistant is $35,390. If you have an amazing boss and are
probably more the a dental assistant but working as one you can earn up to more than $45,540!

Nathan Franco 4
Haslam, Period 2
The job isn't really out there and job availability is great. Something that I really want to do is
have something different to do and not do repetitive work every day, dental welcomes diversity.
Every person acts different at a dental clinic, calm or nervous, and everyone has a different
mouth with each a different problem. When sitting there you also get to know the patient and
hear about what everyone else is doing so it's also a very social job. Along with benefits that
come with the job is feeling person satisfaction that you made someone else happy. You actually
get to see a patient leave with a smile on their face and knowing they feel better about
themselves too!
In all a dental assistant has a very cool job. Being able to not just work in one area but
kind of getting to experiment with their job a little. Dentistry has improved by even having this
position, getting work done faster and breaking down many walls that segregated people. It's a
job that gets you into better and bigger places. This position is really relaxed yet it's almost
customized to what you do best, it never gets boring! All of these are reasons why I want to
eventually go into this job and why I chose to write about it. I hope that I get to fulfill that dream
soon!

Nathan Franco 5
Haslam, Period 2
Citation Page

Debbie S. Robinson, Doni L. Bird, Essentials of Dental Assisting. St. Louis : Elsevier Saunders,
2013. Print.

Watson, Shawn. "The American Dental Assistants Association About ADAA History of ADAA."
The American Dental Assistants Association About ADAA History of ADAA. N.p., 19 June 2014.
Web. 16 Jan. 2016.

ADAA. "The American Dental Assistants Association About ADAA History of ADAA." The
American Dental Assistants Association About ADAA History of ADAA. American Dental
Assistant Associations, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. "Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 Dec. 2015. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.