The duties of chairside assisting are not just assisting and cleaning instruments when there are no patients. Your time should be used to catch up on cleaning the treatment rooms, tubs, and trays, stocking treatment rooms and burs, organizing stock closets, and more. (Refer to the “Daily Checklist” below.) Treatment rooms should look immaculate at all times. This cannot be emphasized enough. When patients arrive early, you are to seat them immediately, inform the doctor of the patient’s name and room number, and inform the doctor that the patient is seated. You should inform patients of the estimated time for their appointments and their estimated...

A rock star dental assistant’s mission is to assist the dentist in every way possible, enabling him or her to provide efficient, high quality dentistry to patients. This includes striving to maintain excellent patient relations, ensuring the patient is well cared for, happy and satisfied. Twelve Habits of Dental Assistant Rock Stars Dental assistant rock star habit #1: A rock star DA ensure he or she is properly trained and continuously strives to improve his or her skill set.  Dental assistant rock star habit #2: A rock star DA needs to have initiative. For example, if a dental assistant feels there is...

Dental assistants have a lot of responsibilities in the practice. Sometimes it's hard to even think of them all. Kevin Tighe has created a very-close-to-complete list of duties for DAs. Purpose The purpose of a dental assistant is to help the dentist in every way possible, which enables the dentist to provide efficient, high-quality care to patients.  The first responsibility of an assistant is to become properly trained and apprenticed, so he or she can perform all the required tasks at maximum speed and efficiency. Top dental assistants also strive to maintain excellent patient relations, ensuring patients are well cared for, happy,...