Dental Assistant Associate’s Degree Programs

Dental Assistant Career and Training Information

A dental assistant is an integral part of a dentist’s office, providing services to patients who go to orthodontists, periodontists and physician’s offices. The ever-increasing need for dental assistants is very high because of the great turnover within the field. If you want to become a dental assistant, you must be able to handle many different types of situations in addition to dealing with mounting paperwork.

The duties that a dental assistant performs includes:

• Preparation of patients for certain procedures
• Sterilization and preparation of dental equipment
• Being able to aide the dentist/orthodontist, etc. during procedures
• Maintaining office records and billing
• Taking appointments

A dental assistant or hygienist also performs the rudimentary work of the dentist such as filling cavities, educating patients on tooth care, and cleaning patients’ teeth. Although hygienists are not allowed to diagnose, they work with dentists and may be able to point out some things that a dentist, whose patient load may be large, may miss.

The advantage of earning an associate’s degree in Dental Hygiene is that schedules can be flexible and pay can be higher than average. Job requisites do vary nationwide but most dental assistants must obtain a license and an associate’s degree from an accredited online dental school. Other course work during the dental assistant program may include:

• Nutrition
• Dental Hygiene
• Diet and Medicine
• Pharmacology
• Radiology and microbiology
• Anatomy and physiology

Upon completion of an associate’s degree which usually lasts two years, you can continue studying and transfer credits to an accredited online school to earn a more advanced degree. At that point, you may want to study the art of cosmetic dentistry, which is becoming very popular. Whichever you choose, a career as a dental hygienist can be very rewarding. You should have excellent people skills and have a good attention to detail, as well.