Dental Assistant Duties - What They're Expected To Do

 

A dental assistant is said to be an extension of the hands of the dentist/dental surgeon. He/she serves as an extra set of hands for the dentist and is therefore a vital member of the team of dental health professionals. If you happen to serve in this position in a dental clinic or any other place you will find that it offers you a wide variety of duties that challenge your physical and mental faculties to provide you with dynamic and invigorating work. The Dental Assistant Job Description would include an interesting list of duties. Here are a few:

Possessing excellent ‘chair assisting skills’ is a prerequisite for a dental assistant and means that they must be able to perform the following duties:

 

  • Prepare and maintain dental instruments, equipment and supplies
  • Collect and record a patient’s health history
  • Manage patients during dental procedures
  • Smoothly and swiftly transfer required instruments from the tray to the dentist 
  • Prepare dental material, composite, amalgam, cements, impression materials etc
  • Know and use dental procedure isolation techniques
  • Handle dental charting
  • Prevent and manage dental medical emergencies
  • Manage and control inventory

 

Other requirements of dental assistants include possessing expanded functions expertise which means the applicant in course of his duties must be able to:

 

  • Place and remove rubber dams, matrices and wedges
  • Apply cavity liners and bases
  • Place, condense, carve and contour amalgam restorations
  • Carve and Contour amalgam restorations
  • Place and finish composite resin restorations, including sealant material

 

However, the term ‘expanded functions’ implies that under the law a dental assistant is forbidden from doing certain things which may include but are not limited to:

 

  • Examining, diagnosing or planning dental treatment
  • Cutting any hard or soft tissue during his work
  • Prescribing medicines, drugs or laboratory authorizations
  • Performing Pulpotomy, pulp capping or any other endotontic procedure
  • Performing cementation/final placement of fixed or removable dental prosthetic appliances
  • Administering parenteral/inhalation sedation, local anesthesia, general anesthesia or nitrous oxide analgesia
  • Taking impressions other than those taken for diagnostic casts and study models

 

Whatever a dental assistant is authorized to do by way of expanded functions has to be done under the direct supervision of a dentist or in a dental facility; meaning that the dentist himself should diagnose the patient’s condition, prescribe treatment and authorize the procedure, all the while remaining in the dental office as the expanded function dental assistant directs the procedure. He is required to evaluate the work performed by the dental assistant before the patient is dismissed. However, the details/list related to expanded functions varies from one state to the other.

 

Additionally, a dental assistant should know and be able to carry out dental infection control procedures. These procedures include dental office infection control plan management to conform to CDC, OSHA and ADA standards. Other parameters requiring expertise include sterilization, disinfection, instrument cleaning and dental treatment room disinfection.

 

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