Dental Assistants

Dental Assistant

Dental assistants are critical to the overall operations of our dental practices. The dental assistant's primary responsibility is to support the dentists and hygienists who provide the clinical care to our patients.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Prepares treatment room for patient by following prescribed procedures and protocols.
• Prepares patient for dental treatment by welcoming, comforting and seating patient with proper draping
• Provides diagnostic information by taking x-rays and intra oral pictures
• Charts patient information and other clinical duties, enters treatment plan and updates necessary patient information on file.
• Sterilizes instruments and delivers instruments to treatment area
• Maintains patient appearance and ability to masticate by fabricating temporary restorations; cleaning and polishing removable appliances.
• Educates patients by giving oral hygiene, plaque control, and postoperative instructions.
• Maintains patient confidence and protects operations by keeping information confidential.

Other Duties

• Log-in to all practice programs in the AM (ie. Emails, Dental Intel and Lighthouse)
• Perform a "Trust Transfer" to either the Scheduling Coordinator or Treatment Coordinator.
• When available, assist in the cleanup and setup of treatment rooms.
• Participate in the Morning Huddle by reviewing patient charts prior to meeting and identifying scheduling concerns, unfinished treatments, patients who are difficult to work on, etc.
• Assist in asking "A" patients for referrals and reviews.
• Assist in building a "Trust Factor" with all patients.
• Assist in uncovering patients Personal Motivators".
• Cover other areas within the practice as needed and when needed.
• Serve as Patient Referral/Reviews Liaison.

Expectations: Meet daily goal set for doctor use the "Standards of Care" as a guideline for treatment required, and the Healthy Mouth Baseline as a comparison. Assist in identifying treatment required for patients, and monitor the results. Educate patients on conditions present, consequences of not moving forward and treatment solutions recommended.