Dental Assistant Working Interview

[Dent22519]

Have any of you guys done a dental assistant working interview? Do you have any tips on what to know--materials, instruments, dental anatomy, other key skills, clinical techniques, etc?

Thanks!

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[ewu6three]

Know everything you learned in assisting school. At a working interview they sit you down with the doctor and you assist for whatever procedures they are doing that day. There may or may not be another assistant standing behind you watching. But they pretty much expect you to know the basic steps for each procedure. Obviously you won't know what the doc. wants specifically but you are evaluated based on your assisting skills.

 

[Dent22519]

Thanks for the reply! I never went through a dental assisting program, so the only experience I have is through shadowing and pre-dental summer programs. Do you have any advice for those who haven't gone to assisting school?

 

[ewu6three]

Well it would probably be best to let the employer know that you do not have any experience. They are most likely under the impression that you do if they scheduled you for a working interview. Let them know you want to help however you can, which is most likely sterilizing, and see if they are willing to train you. This is the path I took. Now I work full time as an assistant, never went to assisting school.

 

[NhuPT]

I also had only shadowing experience before I went in for my assistant interview. I shadowed for about 10 months, a couple hours a week only but I was able to help around and sometimes did some suctioning.
Before my interview, I went to the library and got a dental assistant book, read over the basic procedures and tried to remember the names of basic instruments so when I had working interview at least I know what instruments the dentists is asking for. Try to remember fillings procedure because that is the most frequent procedure at the general practice IMO.
Good luck!