Dental assistants are often as feared and hated as dentists themselves! But this does not go to say that their career is not a noble one. Dental assistants, like dentists, do everything they can to save your teeth from any kind of trouble they may have landed themselves in! They perform quite a number of duties relating to patient care, office and laboratory work.
What They Do
Dental assistants work closely with dentists and are most times supervised by them. But do not confuse dental assistants with dental hygienists; they are commissioned to perform an entirely new set of duties! Surprised by the amount of work your teeth require?
Well, here's something else you didn't know, Americans have the worst teeth in the world! It's true, our teeth are not that great, and stats say that our nation has the highest number of dental patients in the world, making our dentists the richest doctors around!
Skills They Are Required to Posses
As you can probably already make out, dental assistants are required to have a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the mouth and associated regions. Therefore one of the primary skills needed in this work is a knack for science and learning. This is because your job will require you to assist doctors while they are taking X-rays and helping to interpret the results as well.
A proper math foundation is also a prerequisite for a career in this field. This is because you will often have to prepare sterile solutions, medical solutions and sterilize various dental tools and related equipment. You need to perform quick mental calculations for this and that means you need to be good at math. Scratch that, you have to be REALLY good at math!
Communication skills are also indispensable for a dental assistant. The job also includes interacting with the patient before and after the operation procedure.
As a dental assistant, you need to interact with the patients, making them comfortable before the operation and maybe diverting their mind. Dental assistants are required to be good listeners and should have the sensitivity to ask questions at appropriate times or at times listen carefully to what is being said.
You also need to possess good observation skills. Everything that a patient does must be closely observed by you, without making it too obvious. You need to act according to the observations you make and this also means that you need a thorough knowledge of the patient's medical history!
You need to have proper time management skills and manage your own time as well as others. This would also mean adjusting and coordinating your duties with other people on the team. Along with these job specific skills, you are required to possess basic computer skills so as to be able to handle your secretarial duties efficiently.
This is because, you are required to maintain records for every patient and monitor their progress closely. A dental assistant is indispensable to dentistry and it is often a good idea to do this work before you embark on a career as a dentist.
