Is it okay to quit my dental assisting job?

[toothfairywisdom]

I am no longer happy at my dental assisting job but I am trying to wait it out until the dentist I work for writes me a letter of recommendation for dental school. I love the assisting side of the job and the patients but I am too overworked and some of the staff is unfriendly. It is taking a toll on me mentally and physically. Would it be possible to quit after he writes it my letter? I don’t want anything to backfire or hurt my chances of getting in.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Ryxndek]

I think I would just speak to the dentist and just let them know you are feeling burnt out. Waiting for the letter and then bouncing does not look good on your character and the dentist could reach out to the schools and let them know which, frankly, would look worse. If you need to take a break then do it. If you have enough hours with the dentist, and a relationship strong enough to get a letter, they should be understanding of the situation.

Be professional, be vocal, and communicate. These are skills needed in dentistry, and showing these skills will show the dentist you are advocating for yourself and you are mature and wanting to converse. If you don't let them know, they don't know, and they could feel resentment if you screw them over without properly notifying them. Just don't avoid the situation and try your best to handle it before it becomes a much larger problem.

Hope this helps

 

[toothfairywisdom]

He’s not the nicest doctor I’m not sure he would understand. He is about to sell his practice very soon and retire also. I have a few years of assisting experience in multiple specialties and just want a break before starting dental school and focus of my last few prerequisites.

 

[Ryxndek]

If this is the case, I still think you need to communicate with the dentist. Even if they may not understand, there is a turnover in dental assistants. I would assume more so than dentists, they should understand that at least. But, you still need to be professional about this. I personally would be upset if you asked me for a letter and then put your two weeks in shortly after without communicating this to me. To me, this seems unprofessional and I would think that you just needed the letter from me and left. And I could communicate this with schools afterward if I so pleased (not that I would, I'm not petty. But, some folks are).

You need to be upfront about your intentions and that you either A. Need to reduce the amount of time you are spending in the clinic or B. Tell the dentist that you are planning on leaving and as a courtesy you plan on asking them for a letter of recommendation. If you don't think you have a good enough relationship with the dentist where you can't be open and upfront about things, I'm not entirely sure if that's a person who you want writing you a letter, especially if they could write poorly about you, and they are in the desired field.

I think you need to be very careful with how you present everything. You don't want to make it seem like you need a letter and then you are dumping them. That isn't professional. You need to tackle this head-on, be upfront and as honest as possible - communicate your mental health issues, and address this - they might not even be aware. Avoiding conflict isn't something you can do. What happens if you have a patient who is demanding to talk to you on a procedure you did? You have to address the problem immediately.

Hopefully, you can figure this out. Dental schools don't even require dentist letters, very few do. Most require 2 sci, one within major, and a supervisor letter to cover the spread (which, I guess in this case could be the dentist, or your manager if your clinic has one).

 

[OncePreDent]

Just from personal experience, a different dentist than yours. My dad (dentist) has had a few dental assistants that have asked if he would be willing to write LOR months or even years after they worked for him for dental school. Additionally, he helped them with their personal statements and applications, but every dentist is different. IMO I don't think this dentist or any dentist would take it personally if you told him that you wanted to take some time off to focus on your classes and get ready for dental school, etc. & I think the dentist would be happy to write you a LOR.

 

[PerioDont]

yes its fine to quit after you get the letter.

I think I would just speak to the dentist and just let them know you are feeling burnt out. Waiting for the letter and then bouncing does not look good on your character and the dentist could reach out to the schools and let them know which, frankly, would look worse. If you need to take a break then do it. If you have enough hours with the dentist, and a relationship strong enough to get a letter, they should be understanding of the situation.

Be professional, be vocal, and communicate. These are skills needed in dentistry, and showing these skills will show the dentist you are advocating for yourself and you are mature and wanting to converse. If you don't let them know, they don't know, and they could feel resentment if you screw them over without properly notifying them. Just don't avoid the situation and try your best to handle it before it becomes a much larger problem.

Hope this helps

I don't really see that happening. If a dentist wrote an LOR then contacted the school saying he doesn't like the student anymore I think that message would be considered to be from a crazy person and ignored. so I wouldn't really worry about that imo.