Dental Assistant

The Dental Assistant serves as a staff dental assistant at the Dayton VAMC for routine patient care and performs a full range of duties; direct supervision is given for any complex patient procedures from more experienced dental assistants or the treating dentist. Performs assigned selected procedures with independence. Assists the dentist in many aspects of direct patient care and performs other clinical, clerical, and administrative functions of direct supervision for routine services. Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• English Language Proficiency: Dental assistants must be proficient in spoken and written English.

Experience and Education

• Experience: Six months experience that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work, or provides familiarity with the work; or
• Education: Successful completion of a 1-year dental assistant program accredited by the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA); or
• Experience/Education Combination: Equivalent combinations of experience and education are qualifying.

Certification

• Successful completion of the Dental Radiation Health and Safety Examination administered by the Dental Assisting National Board, Inc.; or
• Successful completion of the Principles and Practice of Dental Radiology and Radiographic Safety courses and examinations developed by the Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Dentistry; or
• Successful completion of a radiation health and safety program or examination approved by a state board of dentistry or the Department of Defense (DoD).

Grandfathering Provision

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations

GS-06: At least 1 year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-05).

Assignments at this level include, but are not limited to: using the concepts of four-handed dentistry; assists with specialty procedures including oral surgery, periodontal therapy, endodontic, prosthodontic and implant placement and restoration; takes preliminary impressions; selects and manipulates a variety of gypsums and waxes; pours, trims and evaluates the quality of diagnostic casts; fabricates custom trays.

In addition to the above experience, the candidate must demonstrate the following technical KSAs:

• Ability to identify normal oral anatomy.
• Advanced knowledge of instruments, materials, and standardized dental procedures used in all phases of restorative, surgical, endodontic and periodontal care and procedures.
• Ability to monitor and perform basic interpretation of vital signs.
• Ability to independently provide procedure-specific patient education and appropriate referral of patient concerns to treating dentist.
• Ability to capture standard and special dental images of good diagnostic quality in traditional or digital formats.
• Ability to perform maintenance on dental equipment used for routine and specialty dentistry.
• Ability to enter and retrieve data utilizing electronic dental records.
• Ability to perform dental assistant-appropriate laboratory procedures

Reference

For more information on this qualification standard, please visit

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-6.

Physical Requirements

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand and walk. This work requires long periods of standing and walking as well as considerable bending and stooping. Patient mental and physical status will require the incumbent to be able to assist patients during transfer that is required of examinations and treatment. The incumbent of this position is expected to understand, remember, and apply oral and/or written instructions or other information; understand, remember, and communicate routine, factual information: understand problems and to collaborate and explore alternative solutions; understand opposing points of view and to integrate different viewpoints; organize thoughts and ideas into understandable terminology; organize and prioritize own work schedule; count accurately; and understand and follow basic instructions and guidelines.