Ortho-Assistant

Dental Assistant

Your role is to serve the Hygienist, Doctor and patients beyond expectations. You are accountable for assisting the hygienist in letting the patients know about all the problems that you see, the potential consequences if the problems are left untreated, and what solutions the Doctor is likely to propose. By helping to uncover a patient's Personal Motivators, you create value and increase the patients' motivation to choose treatment along with taking patients x-rays and pictures.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Understand the verbal, assumed, and foreshadowed needs and wants of the Doctor, Hygienist, and patients to help improve efficiency and productivity of the practice.
• Ensure "time integrity" for the Clinical Team, making sure that Doctor and Hygienist and patient's time is never wasted.
• Accurately prepare operatories with the correct instruments prior to each scheduled treatment to mitigate downtime.
• Sterilize instruments to prepare each hygiene room for patient visits.
• Understand and believe in what constitutes a "Healthy Mouth," and compare each patient's mouth to the standard using the "Healthy Mouth Baseline" as a tool.
• Update patients' medical history, record blood pressure, uncovers any new conditions, etc.
• Assist Hygienist in performing a comprehensive periodontal evaluation including probe depths, bleeding points, recessions, mobility, furcation, etc. Use "Standards of Care" and "Healthy Mouth Baseline" as guidelines.
• Help uncover patients' "Personal Motivators" during the visit and record them in their charts. Educate the patients regarding the next steps that the Doctor will likely recommend. Uncover any issues or concerns that the patient may have and alert the appropriate person (e.g., Treatment Coordinator).

Other Duties:

• Log-in to all practice programs in the AM (ie. Emails, Dental Intel and Lighthouse)
• Always abide by OSHA regulations.
• Keep lab and sterilization areas clean and orderly.
• Advise the Appointment Coordinator when a patient requires additional (or less) time units than normal for their upcoming treatment to aid in scheduling efficiency.
• Perform a "Trust Transfer to either the Appointment Coordinator or Treatment Coordinator as needed.
• Participate in the Morning Huddle.
• Assist in asking "A" patients for referrals and reviews

Other Duties:

• 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.
• Be aware of supplies and make sure they are ordered when necessary.

Expectations:

Assist in meeting daily production goals for the Hygiene schedule. Assist in using the intraoral camera on all patients as requested by the Hygienist/Doctor to highlight either problems/concerns/issues or the patient's healthy mouth. 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.