Dental Assisting

The Dental Assisting Program consists of classroom and lab and trains students in all aspects of both clinical chairside assisting as well as introduction to office administration. Clinical Chairside includes:

• Chairside and laboratory procedures
• Sterilization
• Preparing instruments/materials for use
• Charting
• Obtaining dental x-rays
• Medical emergency skills

Office Administration includes:

• Introduction to front office and customer service
• Entering patient records and data
• Privacy of health information
• Basic software knowledge

Students will work on classmates and bring in patients for learning non-invasive procedures such as suctioning and taking impressions. The classroom/lab portion will primarily be held on campus, but also includes field trips and some hybrid distance education days, where the students will be given assignments to do off site. This is a valuable introduction in to the dental field for students interested in becoming chair-side assistants, hygienists, lab technicians, specialty assistants, dentists, product representatives, etc.

The Dental Assisting Externship is completed after the classroom/lab portion of the program. In this segment, the students works on-site at a dental office where the students observes and assists in daily tasks. This gives the students hands-on experience in the industry and a chance to practice the skills they have learned throughout the program.

Students will be responsible to arrange their own externship site, in coordination with the instructor. Students are expected to have at least 15 hours per week during the externship.