Lead Dental Assistant

Lead Dental Assistant

The Lead Dental Assistant works collaboratively with team members and employees to ensure that tasks are completed. The Lead ensures a good working relationship among team members and management, and that team priorities and goals, needs, and achievements are coordinated with management. Duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

Lead Duties:

• Provides input on clinical workflow/assignments and provides guidance using advanced knowledge of dental-assisting principles across multiple areas of practice.
• Provides input in dental-program development, outcome management, and strategic planning.
• Acts as liaison between dental-assisting staff and supervisor.
• Provides guidance to other assistants in achieving quality radiographs.
• Instructs in maintenance of all dental service equipment.
• Performs room inspections and provides feedback to dental assistants regarding compliance with infection control guidelines.
• Provides primary support to the Supervisory Dentist for the daily delivery of department programs to include Environment of Care, Infection Control, Reusable Medical Equipment, Community Care, Consult Management, Specialty Referral coordination, Pharmacy Communication, Digital Dentistry, Clinic Utilization and Inventory Management.
• Provides daily staffing reports, and updates morning huddle board and electronic huddle sheet.
• Coordinates patients' care plans to reduce redundancies and delay in patient treatment, coordinating community care referrals for specialty and general dental care, and will act as liaison between Veteran Affairs Dental clinic and community provider to relay any information and ensure optimal patient experience.

Patient Care Duties:

• Complies with patient identification requirements, the Medication Reconciliation Process, the Time-Out process, the IMED consent process, infection control protocols in all aspects of the care process and follows standard operating procedures for all reusable medical equipment (RME) in use in the dental clinical area.
• Communicates with patients regarding treatment timeliness, scheduling and rescheduling appointments.
• Charts findings and treatment plans in Dental Record Manager.
• Completes electronic return to clinic orders using the Computerized Patient Record System.
• Captures and saves quality intra and extra-oral digital images.
• Observes the patient throughout treatment for signs of fainting, shock, or distress.
• Prepares the operatory with all needed equipment, materials, and supplies for planned dental procedures.
• Works with Prosthetics for ordering, storing, and tracking of Dental Implant parts and biologics.
• Obtains and records the patient's vital signs in the electronic medical record.
• Anticipates the dentist's need at each stage of the treatment procedure.
• Employs proper techniques and dexterity in the practice of four-handed dentistry.
• Keeps the operative field clear of debris and improves access by effectively retracting the tongue and/or oral tissues.
• Accomplishes all intra-operative procedures in compliance with standard infection control protocols.
• Takes impressions for diagnostic casts and preliminary impressions used to fabricate custom trays.
• Provides patient post-operative education. Instructs patients in preventive dental care practices, care of prosthodontic appliances and other oral healthcare education.
• Performs routine maintenance of equipment components.
• Assists with digital design and milling of 3D printed restorations and dental appliances.

Dental Laboratory Functions:

• Pours and trims dental related stone models and fabricates bite rims.
• Constructs custom impression trays.
• Fabricates vacuum-formed stints, soft mouth guards, retainers, and fluoride trays.
• Utilizes firing oven to complete fabrication of milled dental restorations.

Dental Imaging:

• Ensure images are characterized by diagnostic quality, accurately oriented and exposed.
• Ensures that dental imaging safety techniques are utilized, retakes are minimized, imaging requests are prompt and labeled.

Infection Control and Equipment Sterilization:

• Sets up Reusable Medical Equipment (RME) for all equipment and ensures instruments are properly prepared for sterilization by SPS standards.
• Demonstrates proper infection control procedures in setting up and cleaning up operatory.
• Disinfects oral appliances.
• Ensures instruments are properly prepared for sterilization per Sterile Processing Service standards.

Additional Duties:

• Performs administrative duties, to include printing reports, addressing pending issues, scheduling patient appointments and updating patient demographic data.
• Ensures that employee educational requirements and safety training is completed.

Work Schedule: Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm

Compressed/Flexible Tours: Not Available

Telework: Not Available

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Financial Disclosure Report: Not required