Dental Assistant

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

busupshot83

S.D.N. Vet
7+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
20+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2003
Messages
2,247
Reaction score
3
I'm thinking about completing the certification to become a dental assistant, and working as one until I finish my degree. Does this look good on the application?

Members don't see this ad.
 
I know a predent at my school who is going to do that on his year off. I think it looks good. Not sure.

abina81
 
It looks great. I have it on my application. I worked as an assistant for over 7 months and mentioned it on my application. Each school I have gone to has commended me on having this experience.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
For what it's worth,

I think it looks good for you to show that much interest in Dentistry. It's a win-win job. You get experience in a dental office, and you add another line on your CV.
I know of a few dental students who got into dental school through the back door by going to the same school's Dental Hygiene Program. That's a win-win, too.
 
WOw that's a great idea.!

I have been volunteering as a dental assistant myself for a long time now and love it. You just gave me a summer job idea. I always end up doing something weird just for the money (like retail store) so why don't I do something i like and the money isn't that bad, should be about 10 bucks an hours.

Good luck to you.
 
i know this is a hard question to answer, but i think i can answer it.

is it look good on your app to be an assistant?

ANSWER: yes. like croco said, its something that the schools like to see and it will make you look very good and interested in the feild.

besides, it'll be a good thing to experience to see for sure if you really like dentistry.

as far as the certificate goes, you can start vounteering and i don't think you have to have your cert. i started volunteering and then i was hired as an assistant.
 
sure it looks good.

i assisted full time for a year prior to dental school. even better than how it looked on the application, however, was my level of experience.

thus far, i have breezed through a great deal of learning. i'm much more comfortable with terminology and equipment. i get to concentrate my efforts elsewhere.

dont even hesitate to assist as much as possible.
 
like people have said before, im pretty sure you dont need any certification. However, with the economy it will be very tough to find a job, at least it was in my area. I tried for about 4 months and could not get a job because they wanted people with experience or training, however some dentists will train you, just gotta get lucky.
 
Well that's true they are indeed looking for people with expereince and training. However I think the dentist you volunteered could write you a letter. I looked at todays local paper, the clasified section has at least 20 ads that seek Dental assistants. Many of the ads are probably way too old but worth a try. And none of them mention certification. It would be nice to have certification of course, but I heard my dentist mention that he likes to train his Assistant's "his" way. So I don't think it matters that much.
Many of the procedures that Dental assistant performs aren't realy that complicated. It's just overwhelming at first but then it all makes sense and you learn to do stuff.
I am going to call up those dental offices and will let you guys know what they think.
 
I live in MA and can tell you that the shortage of dental assistant here is to the point of crisis. Dentists here are competing with one another to hire a dental assiatnt. my sister went through an intense 4 month long dental assisting program and just got her certificate. she has 3 full time position offers already. one of them is to help an endodontist during his surgeries. what more could you ask for???

moral of the story: I will have a fully experienced assistant in 4 years:)

Comet
 
I've been assisting a periodontist for over a year now. You really don't need any sort of certificates to be able to assist. All I needed was an xray license and thats all.

adn of course it will look good in apps! After all the assisting I've done, it better! ;)
 
Saman,

Welcome to SDN.. its interesting to see the Persian population here go everyday!

Persian Comet!

now back to Dental Assisting topic...
 
Top