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A dental assistant can simply be described as the extended hands of the dentist or dental surgeon and therefore a vital member of the dental health professional team. A dental assistant will find that they are offered a wide variety of challenging duties and be presented with dynamic and invigorating work. A dental assistant must possess excellent chair assisting skills. As such a dental assistant job description involves duties which would include the following:
• Preparing and maintain dental instruments, equipment and supplies
• Collecting and recording a patient’s health history
• Managing patients during dental procedures
• Smoothly and swiftly transferring required instruments from the tray to the dentist
• Preparing dental materials, composites, amalgams, cements, impression materials etc
• Knowing and using dental procedure isolation techniques
• Handling dental charting
• Preventing and managing dental medical emergencies
• Managing and control inventory
Other dental assistant duties may involve those of expanded functions expertise which means an assistant in course of their duties must be able to:
• Place and remove rubber dams, matrices and wedges
• Apply cavity liners and bases
• Place, condense, carve and contour amalgam restorations
• Carve and Contour amalgam restorations
• Place and finish composite resin restorations, including sealant material
The term ‘expanded functions’ implies that a dental assistant is also forbidden from doing certain things which may include but not be limited to:
• Examining, diagnosing or planning dental treatment
• Cutting any hard or soft tissue during his work
• Prescribing medicines, drugs or laboratory authorizations
• Performing Pulpotomy, pulp capping or any other endotontic procedure
• Performing cementation/final placement of fixed or removable dental prosthetic appliances
• Administering parenteral/inhalation sedation, local anesthesia, general anesthesia or nitrous oxide analgesia
• Taking impressions other than those taken for diagnostic casts and study models
Whatever duties a dental assistant is authorized to do by way of expanded functions has to be done under the direct supervision of a dentist or in a dental facility; meaning that the dentist himself is responsible for diagnosing the patient’s condition, prescribing treatment and authorizing procedures. The dentist will also be required to remain in direct supervision of the dental assistant whilst he/she performs their expanded functions. The dental assistant’s work will be evaluated by the supervising dentist before the patient is dismissed. The expanded functions that a dental assistant may provide will vary from one state to the next.
A dental assistant will also be required to carry out dental infection control procedures. These procedures include dental office infection control plan management to conform to CDC, OSHA and ADA standards. Other parameters requiring expertise include sterilization, disinfection, instrument cleaning and dental treatment room disinfection.
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