What You Should Know as a Dental Assistant

A Day in the Life of a Dental Assistant

From the desk of our Dental Assisting Department:

Some may wonder what we as Dental Assistants do all day or what we are required to do.

Here is what we do in a nutshell.

First thing in the morning we will come in, turn everything on, start the sterilization and prepare the dental instruments for the day and have the ops ready for that first patient. We get everything running.

Typically, the office will have a morning meeting before we see any patients. These are often called huddle meetings. The point of these morning meetings is to go over the schedule and make sure everyone is on the same page. Basically, this is where we get to boss the doctor around just a little bit. We also talk about the patient’s needs and requirements, such as pre meds, N2o, insurance verifications, when they last came in and what their last treatment was like. We take a deep breath, then we are off.

We help calm patients and reassure them that everything is going to be just fine. It is always good to remember that the patient is a person, not a number. The patient more often than not, does not want to be at the dentist office.

We instruct patients on proper follow up care after oral procedures. We also teach patients about oral hygiene and how to properly take care of the restoration that was just place in their mouth. We give post op care instructions to each and every patient.

We take patients health history and update them also taking their vital signs.

We take dental xrays and intraoral photos for each and every patient. We also take all different kinds of impressions and communicate to different labs what the patient and the doctor want. We also talk to Dental Reps from different venders, do the ordering for supplies and equipment.

Assistants also assist the Dentist with dental treatments and procedures. We are the doctor’s right-hand person.

Also after each patient or at the end of the day, we are writing in the patients chart and updating treatment plans and writing in the clinical notes. We also are sterilizing after each patient the ops instruments and anything in between.

At the end of the day we close everything down and get everything ready for the next day; such as patients charts and anything we may need during a procedure. Once everything is completed for the day we then get to go home relax and do it all again the next day.

It is a very busy, fast-paced, and requires hard work and very good communication skills; but is very worth seeing our patients leave with beautiful smiles. We are apart of changing peoples lives, one smile at a time.

After seeing what our day-to-day looks like, if you are interested in finding out more about becoming a Dental Assistant, contact us to schedule a tour of our facility. See for yourself our labs and where your next career adventure could begin.