Dental Assistants

The dentist has just sutured (stitched up) a patient’s gums and wants you to clean the area with a handheld suction device and a water-spray. Next you’re off to remove sutures from a patient in another room. After that, you’ll sterilize dental instruments for still another procedure. 

These are just some of the tasks you’ll perform as a dental assistant. Preparing patients for treatment and making sure they’re comfortable throughout a procedure is also a key part of the job.

Dental assistants work side by side with dentists to perform a wide range of patient care, office, and laboratory duties. Responsibilities range from preparing trays of instruments to making temporary crowns.

Are You Ready To...?

• Work chairside with a dentist as a third hand and sometimes a second set of eyes
• Protect yourself from patients' infectious diseases by wearing gloves, masks, and special clothing
• Perform office work
• Chat with patients
• Take x-rays
• Make casts of teeth

It Helps To Be...

Reliable, able to work well with others, and quick and agile with your hands. If you’ve been in sync with a lab partner in biology or chemistry, or even worked in a restaurant kitchen, you’ve already experienced some of the skills necessary for dental assistants.

Make High School Count

• Take plenty of math and science courses.
• Enhance your communication skills through English composition, drama, and speech classes.
• Study a foreign language so you'll be able to communicate with more patients.
• Volunteer at a dental clinic.