Any luck with dental assisting?

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Dr.Jamie

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I have been a part time dental assistant for seven years. I'm moving to a new town (with a dental school) so until my acceptance I'd like to assist. I probably won't matriculate until fall of '08. Have any of you had any luck with getting assisting or dental lab tech jobs? Do you tell the dentist of your plans? The problem is that I'm going to grad school at this university, so I'm asking for part time positions. I'm wondering if they'll know i'm interested in dentistry with my all of my experience (and a degree in bio) and won't even give me a chance. Do I lie? I have an interview friday. What have you all done?

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It's up to you and what you are comfortable with. Personally, when I went looking for dental assisting jobs, I didn't lie about the fact that I might be gone in a year and a few months. It definitely wasn't helpful, but I only had fairly minimal dental assisting training prior to applying. I probably called or interviewed at a dozen places, most outright told me no when they heard I wasn't planning to be around for several years. I interviewed or had working interviews at about 5 places, and only one actually offered me the job. But I also had fallback jobs in mind and was interviewing for non-dental related positions too

In the end, I said no to the ortho assisting job and actually went for a higher paying salary position somewhere else doing what I'm doing today...which is awesome cause it's a totally easy laid back job. I'm at work right now and on SDN.
 
It's going to be a little harder for you to get a job is you tell them that you won't be their after a year.
 
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yeah, i just don't know what to do. I've been working in insurance at state farm for six months now, and i do have an interview with another insurance company. What i do in insurance really doesn't pay that well though, and it may not be very flexible. I enjoy dentistry though, so I really wanted to get back into it. I'll have to come up with a good lie maybe.
 
so to become a dental assistant or work for a dental lab tech, do you actually have to go to school 1-2 years and become certified?

just wondering as i'm looking to find a dental related job...
 
so to become a dental assistant or work for a dental lab tech, do you actually have to go to school 1-2 years and become certified?

just wondering as i'm looking to find a dental related job...

You don't have to go to school for theses, some dentists will allow for you to learn on the job.
 
If I had to pick between the two, I would shoot for any work and or experience as a dental lab tech over dental assisting. Dental school will require many hours of lab work in addition to didactic work. Any additional time and eventual stress you can save yourself by addressing lab work beforehand will serve you better in the long run.

Also, working as a lab tech will help fine tune hand skills before you get to dental school. The more you know before dental school, the more positive your experience will be. Trust me.
 
so to become a dental assistant or work for a dental lab tech, do you actually have to go to school 1-2 years and become certified?

just wondering as i'm looking to find a dental related job...

if you are not certified or have any previous experience, finding a job may be difficult...depending on where you are looking, and you will almost for sure make quite a bit less, at least to start, than you would otherwise.

Still, dental assisting school isn't free, but is is available. Some community colleges do it in a year, other private places have programs as short as 3 months.

with or without DA certification, you should at least me x-ray certified if you plan to assist.

Labs usually require no certification and provide all on-site training
 
If I had to pick between the two, I would shoot for any work and or experience as a dental lab tech over dental assisting. Dental school will require many hours of lab work in addition to didactic work. Any additional time and eventual stress you can save yourself by addressing lab work beforehand will serve you better in the long run.

Also, working as a lab tech will help fine tune hand skills before you get to dental school. The more you know before dental school, the more positive your experience will be. Trust me.

generally lab techs are trained in training courses and are certified. My dad is a certified dental lab tech. Those jobs are nearly impossible to find, whereas dental assisting jobs are a dime a dozen. So assisting would be much easier.
 
Dental Assisting might be easier to start, but the lab tech job is more desirable. I know people who have done this: Call the labs and ask them if you could shadow much in the same way you would shadow a dentist. It may sound like a long road of frustration, but huge dividends will be paid when you are sleeping at 11pm and 90% of your classmates are so tired they can't remember what day it is. Trust me.
 
Dang, i didn't know dental lab tech exp was so desirable, or helpful. THanks for the input guys. I think i'm go apply to a dental lab tech co this week.
 
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