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Health Care Career Profiles: Dental Assisting
Sue Johnson of Missoula, Mont., has been a dental assistant for 21 years and has spent the last seven in pediatric dentistry. Here, she talks about her day-to-day tasks in dental assisting, sharing what she most loves about the job. She also discusses the education that started her on the path toward this rewarding career.
"My No. 1 responsibility is to educate parents and children about dental health. To do this, I talk to them and share demonstration products, such as images, models and x-rays. These products facilitate my teaching, by showing parents and children the picture of dental health. Educating patients is my most important job.
"As for my day-to-day job, I do room set-up, laying out instruments, setting up machinery and preparing products, such as cements and composites. I prepare patients, getting them seated and making them comfortable. I take x-rays, too, since I'm certified in dental radiology. But perhaps the most challenging, yet rewarding, task is in interpreting complex ideas so a child can understand them. I've been called the Baby Whisperer because I can do this. It's important to calm children's fears. To get them ready for any dental work, you have to tell them and show them what you're going to do before you can do it.
"As for education, I completed a dental assisting program that we called Dental Bootcamp. It was a two-year dental assistant program condensed to nine months. There, I learned a lot of fundamental information, including anatomy, physiology and terminology. We had a lot of hands-on time, too, on-campus and off-campus. On campus, there was a clinic where we worked on mostly friends and family members. I also had to complete an externship with a local dental office.
"The job has been extremely rewarding, especially since I began working with kids. The innocence of children never grows old and the job keeps me eternally youthful. And, hopefully, I'm making a difference, even if with just one patient."
Additional Information for Individuals Pursuing Dental Assisting Careers
Dental Assisting Schools and Degree Programs
Additional Resources for Professionals Interested in a Dental Assistant Career Found on Health-Care-Careers.org
Bureau of Labor Statistics Information on Dental Assistants
The American Dental Assistant Association
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American Career College (ACC) offers hands-on training that will prepare students for careers in the healthcare industry at three campuses in Los Angeles, Ontario, and Orange County, California.
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