Job as a Dental Assistant??

[rodneymoss]

Hello,

I just recently landed a job as a Dental Assistant and was so happy. The Dentist is starting me off at 8/hr and a possibility of increasing it depending on how quick I catch on to things. But, its really not all aobut the money but more about the exposure im receiving. Im pretty sure pre-dental students will kill to have this position.
For all of you Dental Assistants out there; how was your first day on the job. Nervous much? How quick did you catch on to things.. like learning dental instruments, chairside assisting, or other tasks performed by an assistant. Also, will dental assisting make me stand out on my dental school application?

Are there websites online that can teach you about dental assisting and instruments?


Thanks Alot

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[rewJW]

I started off just doing sterilization (I work in a multi-doc practice so we have one person who does all the instruments) -- I took a notepad with me and wrote down everything I needed to know, from names of instruments to what gets bagged with what to what gets used when. I ended up hovering around the docs/other assistants when there was nothing to do in steril to begin learning what instruments were needed for what procedures, how to suction, etc. I am now a full time chairside assistant. Just don't expect to be able to do everything at once, because it really will be overwhelming. Learn as much as you can as quickly as you can, but don't overwhelm yourself because things can get confusing ... i.e. an endo explorer can look a lot like a perio probe until you learn the difference. I remember on my first day listening to the other assistants calling the labs over cases and thinking 'jeez I have no idea what anything they are saying is,' now I run my own docs' lab cases and supply ordering in addition to being chairside, and when I've had downtime I've learned the front desk too.

As for looking online to learn instrument names, I would say it's probably better to wait and see what your doctor calls things. Some instruments have multiple names depending on where the doc went to school - plugger/condenser, discoid cleoid/carver, but also a hollenback some call a carver ... gets confusing. I'm not sure what the 'official' names you'd find online are. Some things do have basically universal names, like an explorer, so far I haven't heard a doc call that something else lol.

I found assisting to be a very rewarding experience as well as a good eye opener into the field of dentistry.

 

[frenchriviera24]

Hey Rodney that will definitely stand out because it provides evidence that a dentist can trust you to work competently with him/her. I'm guessing it's on-the-job training? How did you land the job?

 

[rodneymoss]

Thanks alot Rewjw for your story. I will take your advice and wait until i start the job tomorrow. I very much appreciate your response. Thanks!

Frenchriviera, I honestly dont know how i landed this position, well im lying. I called over 60 dental clinics in chicago, left messages to the dentists saying that i was a Pre-dental student at a local university looking for volunteering opportunities, or maybe even employment. I stress that volunteering is my number one concern.


He didnt call me back until a month later, and i didnt even know who he was.
But he told me to come in for an interview and said he will train me.

Good luck if you decide on searching for a position

 

[frenchriviera24]

Thanks alot Rewjw for your story. I will take your advice and wait until i start the job tomorrow. I very much appreciate your response. Thanks!

Frenchriviera, I honestly dont know how i landed this position, well im lying. I called over 60 dental clinics in chicago, left messages to the dentists saying that i was a Pre-dental student at a local university looking for volunteering opportunities, or maybe even employment. I stress that volunteering is my number one concern.


He didnt call me back until a month later, and i didnt even know who he was.
But he told me to come in for an interview and said he will train me.

Good luck if you decide on searching for a position

Well hey that's persistence if I've ever seen it. Twenty clinics is a lot, but 60?? Good for you! Tell you what I'm going to give it a shot as well.
You're lucky to be in Chicago, as it's a metro area...LOTS of dentists.

 

[323oc323]

Thanks alot Rewjw for your story. I will take your advice and wait until i start the job tomorrow. I very much appreciate your response. Thanks!

He didnt call me back until a month later, and i didnt even know who he was.
But he told me to come in for an interview and said he will train me.

Hi there! I hope your first two weeks assisting have been going well and you're enjoying your new experience!

If you are still looking for some advice, let me know because I have been working full time as a dental assistant for a general dentist in California for the past 14 months. Prior to that, I worked in a perio office for 3 months, which were horrible, but I learned a lot about people and simply working full time (I had just graduated and took the first job I could get). Also, while I was in college still, I worked for a year in an ortho office doing sterilization and easy chairside stuff. So I hope it's going well for you, and that it's a good situation, because it can be stressful and overwhelming.

I do want to agree with rewJW and say that every doctor works differently and will call things by different names. Sometimes the doctor I work for will call a bite stick a "bite stick" one day and a "tooth slooth" (tissue vs Kleenex scenario) the next day, so assisting is learning how the doctor wants to work and working around that in a sense.

Also, if you are doing chairside, if no one has told you anything about dental office ergonomics, look it up online and just read a little about it. If you want a lifelong career in dentistry, don't hurt yourself by assisting incorectly and injuring your shoulder/back/etc by just not knowing, you know? It actually matters how your gloves fit, for the health of your whole arm!

I wish you the best of luck in your new endevor!

 

[doc toothache]

Hello,

Im pretty sure pre-dental students will kill to have this position.

Some might while most would probably opt to pass.

 

[Frederico Albin]

Wow, you guys are so lucky to find a job like that. But like mentioned above, you deserve it. I have been looking for a dental assisting job for a while now, but most of the doctors here where I live want "EXPERIENCE/certified dental assistants", something that I don't have

 

[the1nOnly]

Does Dental Assistance Program offer online? If so, what's better in class or online?

 

[Enso]

Does Dental Assistance Program offer online? If so, what's better in class or online?

I'm 2 weeks into a 9 week program offered all over Florida. If it applies to you search the threads I've created and you can find more info.

 

[babiegurlbc]

i found this site just googling and it has some basics...so its a start

http://www.free-ed.net/sweethaven/MedTech/Dental/DentAssist/DentAssist01_TXT.asp

 

[rodneymoss]

Thanks for the website!

 

[MichaelVicksDog]

Playa,

WASTE OF TIME.

I'm not trying to hate but $8/hr?? Come on dogg. Your being a employed dental assistant isn't gonna have that much weight when you apply to dental schools. When I went to my interviews, damn near half the applicants were working as a full time or at least part time dental assistant. I've even come across a few dental hygienists. Your time and energy will be better spent studying for the DAT and keeping your GPA up. And again, this is REAL TALK, just do this assisting bull**** for like a week so you learn enough stuff to talk about if the subject of dental experience ever comes up in your interviews.

Sup babiegurlbc

 

[swellguy]

I would have to disagree with the above poster. In my experience most of the applicants are not dental assistants, they have around 100 hours of shadowing and thats it. If you can walk in and say you have 2500+ hours of dental experience (or whatever it ends up being) I think that would count for a lot. Plus with dental assisting experience it will be easier for you to volunteer in community clinics to further bolster your application. But he was right in the sense that you can't sacrifice your GPA/DAT. If you lose the numbers game and they chuck your application, they will never see all that great experience you got, or the rad personal statement that you were able to write after all that time in a dental office.

Oh, and your letter of rec from this dentist would probably be great too. Just a thought

 

[Enso]

Playa,

WASTE OF TIME.

I'm not trying to hate but $8/hr?? Come on dogg. Your being a employed dental assistant isn't gonna have that much weight when you apply to dental schools. When I went to my interviews, damn near half the applicants were working as a full time or at least part time dental assistant. I've even come across a few dental hygienists. Your time and energy will be better spent studying for the DAT and keeping your GPA up. And again, this is REAL TALK, just do this assisting bull**** for like a week so you learn enough stuff to talk about if the subject of dental experience ever comes up in your interviews.

Sup babiegurlbc

Reading this makes me inclined to take whatever advice you give.

 

[MichaelVicksDog]

I would have to disagree with the above poster. In my experience most of the applicants are not dental assistants, they have around 100 hours of shadowing and thats it. If you can walk in and say you have 2500+ hours of dental experience (or whatever it ends up being) I think that would count for a lot. Plus with dental assisting experience it will be easier for you to volunteer in community clinics to further bolster your application. But he was right in the sense that you can't sacrifice your GPA/DAT. If you lose the numbers game and they chuck your application, they will never see all that great experience you got, or the rad personal statement that you were able to write after all that time in a dental office.

Oh, and your letter of rec from this dentist would probably be great too. Just a thought

OH MY GOD...2500 hours are you serious dogg??

Find me an applicant with a good GPA/DAT who got rejected because he only had 50~100 hours of dental experience. I'll wait.

 

[swellguy]

I was not saying you need 2500 hours. Most applicants, and therefore a lot of the people accepted only have a moderate amount of dental experience. I was saying that by having spent that much time in a dental office the OP's application would stand out from the competition and be that much stronger. Also I would think that a letter of rec from a dentist with whom you have worked a great deal and could speak of your character and ability to interact with patients would carry more weight then a dentist you shadowed for a few hours.

 

[Contach]

I was not saying you need 2500 hours. Most applicants, and therefore a lot of the people accepted only have a moderate amount of dental experience. I was saying that by having spent that much time in a dental office the OP's application would stand out from the competition and be that much stronger. Also I would think that a letter of rec from a dentist with whom you have worked a great deal and could speak of your character and ability to interact with patients would carry more weight then a dentist you shadowed for a few hours.

2500 hours is like 14 months of dental assisting...
Doing anything for 14 months full-time will make you stand out.

 

[cybermech]

Playa,

WASTE OF TIME.

I'm not trying to hate but $8/hr?? Come on dogg. Your being a employed dental assistant isn't gonna have that much weight when you apply to dental schools. When I went to my interviews, damn near half the applicants were working as a full time or at least part time dental assistant. I've even come across a few dental hygienists. Your time and energy will be better spent studying for the DAT and keeping your GPA up. And again, this is REAL TALK, just do this assisting bull**** for like a week so you learn enough stuff to talk about if the subject of dental experience ever comes up in your interviews.

Sup babiegurlbc

You are quickly becoming a flamer here on SDN. I highly suggest that you keep your sexist and elitist comments to yourself. 99% of the people here on SDN agree that, given that you are doing all you can to get a good DAT and GPA, assisting or getting any sort of dental experience, regardless of the salary, is the next best thing to do (aside from dental-related research if you're applying to research-oriented dental school).

 

[MichaelVicksDog]

You are quickly becoming a flamer here on SDN. I highly suggest that you keep your sexist and elitist comments to yourself. 99% of the people here on SDN agree that, given that you are doing all you can to get a good DAT and GPA, assisting or getting any sort of dental experience, regardless of the salary, is the next best thing to do (aside from dental-related research if you're applying to research-oriented dental school).

Hey take it easy brah it ain't that serious. If you have time to be a full time dental assistant, you're not doing "all you can" to get a good DAT. All I'm saying is there's definite overemphasis on extracurriculars like research, volunteering, and dental experience. There needs to be more focus on the DAT and GPA.