r/DentalAssistant

So yesterday we celebrated the Fourth of July in our office. We usually close for 3 but we closed for 1 so we could have a little in office party at the end of the day. We’ve had flyers posted In the waiting room letting people know this for about three weeks now. We do offer walk in hours but they close for 10 so no one should have been walking in anyway.

So we close at 1 like we scheduled for. Everyone’s upstairs in the break room. We have music going, we’re eating, our doctor is bbqing on our back stairway patio. And then we hear banging. There’s a window in our break room thats directly on top of the entry door on the first floor. We see a lady. So some of us go down and talk to the lady. She basically tried to lie and say she had a scheduled appointment but after we told her that was impossible and explained how she quickly switched to saying she was coming in for an emergency walk in. Obviously not being able to turn her away because she verbally told us it was an emergency and we were within operating hours we took her.

So I do her X-rays. Her tooth is cracked down to the root. No saving has to be extracted. I get it all set up. My doctor comes back down from upstairs and he’s already aggravated because you know he’s supposed to be partying right now. But he doesn’t show that to the patient. He lets her know he’s about to numb and she starts getting real fidgety. Moving around. Flinching before she’s even open her mouth. So he reassures everything will be fine. He going to put the needle in her mouth and she goes to grab his hand. Before she can he pulls the needle away from her and basically tells her how dangerous that is. So I offer to hold her hands and tell her she can squeeze as hard as she can(She’s squeezing the absolute fuck out of my hands. I’m a 230 lbs man vs a 150ish looking lady and she’s hurting my hands). My doctor goes to numb again and as soon as he gets close she throws her head in the opposite direction off of the head rest.

He rolls back, sets the syringe down, takes his gloves off, walks out and I already know what’s going on. So I take my gloves off and start getting the referral forms written. I go to explain to the lady she’s going to be referred to an oral surgeon to get the tooth out because my doctor is no longer comfortable doing it. She’s like but why he can come in. And she’s making all these excuses and I’m just like maam he’s not going to come back in. He would rather not take the risk of hurting you in case you did happen to move again. ATP I’m sure my doctor is upstairs eating again and I’m stuck down here explaining the same thing over and over. So she finally gets the hint after like 15 minute that he’s in fact not coming back and she take the referral and leave. But not before she verbally insulted and degraded me as if I was the one that was going to be doing the work……….add that to the list of reasons I hate being a dental assistant

As title says - lets hear what we should

After the procedure, I was rushing to tidy up the room and ended up leaving one spot with blood on it.
The dentist told me not to sterilize the dental mirrors, but at the end of the day I accidentally put them in the autoclave. I'm afraid I'll get fired. 😩

Hey guys! I posted on here about a week or so ago that i got let go from my last job (may have actually been on my burner account idk)

Well o have 4 interviews lined up at different offices.. and I’m curious as to what are thing you guys look for as potential RED FLAGS and GREEN FLAGS.. I’m still pretty new into dental assisting so I’m too sure. Unfortunately for my last job I didn’t get training at all and it was a lot of me following around someone who was supposed to train me but didn’t.. thank you guys in advance!! I’m a really fast learner so a few offices I applied for was

- endo
- ortho
-general

Literally anything at this point..

So I have been assisting for a few years now and every once in a while we get a patient where the Xrays just stop everyone in their tracks. Last week we had a new patient come in for a routine cleaning and when the dentist pulled up the panoramic we all just kind of stood there for a second. The patient had a retained baby tooth with zero sign of a permanent tooth underneath it, completely surrounded by bone that looked totally undisturbed. Patient was in their late 30s and had no idea anything was unusual. The dentist actually called another doc over just to take a look.

It got me thinking about how often these surprise findings happen in other offices. Radiology is one of those parts of the job that never gets boring because you genuinely never know what you are about to see when those images load up.

Have you ever had a finding that made the whole team stop and gather around the monitor? Maybe something the patient had no clue about, or a root shape that seemed physically impossible to get out in one piece? Would love to hear some of the wild things this community has come across. A good set of Xrays tells you so much before you even pick up an instrument.

I've been looking into potential career building paths and I had heard stuff about dental assisting. I looked into some of the places hiring, and they mention requiring a high school degree and that you need to be certified for dental assisting. They don't mention requiring an associates degree for dental assisting which was something I had looked into in the past.

Is there a seperate, quicker certification program available for dental assisting? Or is just that they're wording their posts weird and that they do require an associate degree?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just don't really know a whole lot about this and wanted to ask people with experience. Thank you!

Hey everybody, about a month ago I had interviewed for a place hiring for a dental assistant. I passed the phone and in-person interview, then they took me in for a working interview. I had told them that I am still in school (first year in university) and I’m currently finishing up my finals so if hired I would be able to work after this date (I gave them the date). They said no problem. My working interview was supposed to be for 2 hours, 9-11 a.m., they ended up keeping me till 9-12:30. The working interview went great, I did sterilization, prep and break rooms, and help with taking x-rays. After the interview the office manager asked if I could come in the next day. I told her it’s not possible since I have a final, I’m available to come in later that week though. She said perfect just email me whenever you want to come in for some practice and get familiar with the setup, sterilization, etc. At that time, it was like I got hired cuz she kept asking my start date and she kept telling me where I will be mostly working, so I thought that I would be getting paid for the amount of time I was there my first check. Long story short, after my finals were done, I had asked if I could come in 4 days before my start date to familiarize myself (mind you this was 4 days after my working interview). She emailed me 2 days later saying "We hoped to hear from you last weekend regarding your available days available before your start date. We have decided to go with another candidate. I wish you the best of luck in your career." ???????? I was furious. MIND YOU. I applied directly on their website and they aren’t very popular. The job posting wasn’t even on Indeed, LinkedIn, Handshake or ANYTHING. So maybe the posting on their website was just old cuz I’ve been researching them for months and the job posting was there ever since they opened their office (7 years ago). Idk what should I do now??? I emailed her back saying this and she just left my on read "Thank you for letting me know. I did want to mention that I am still a student and was in the middle of final exams, which is why I was unable to come in before May 6th. I assumed my email this weekend showed my continued interest in the position." Was I wrong? Did I misread the entire situation? Please give advice since this was my first working interview and I am pre-dental so I don’t want to mess up on any other interview.

Is auditing the schedule normal in your office?

In my current office the front desk has no prior dental experience and the clinical staff is supposed to audit the schedule (double check thier work). As you can imagine, this leads to having to call and reschedule patients daily. Not a day goes by were there isn't someone the Doctor wants to move because of them being scheduled incorrectly. If they're not moved, then we do less treatment than was scheduled, because of lack of time.

I don't check the schedule, other than making sure we have lab cases in office. I don't believe in taking away from others learning opportunities.

What would you do?

I've been a dental assistant for a few years now and honestly the things patients say when they're nervous or half numb never get old. Last week I had a patient mid extraction suddenly go very calm and tell me they had figured out the meaning of life thanks to the nitrous. Did not elaborate. Just stared at the ceiling looking completely at peace.

We could all use a good laugh right now because this job can be exhausting, especially when the schedule is packed and everything is running behind. The funny moments are what keep me going some days.

I know a lot of you have been doing this way longer than me so I have to imagine the stories are even better. Whether it's something bizarre they said, something they admitted while numb, or just a random observation about the ceiling tiles, I want to hear it all.

Drop your best ones in the comments. Keeping patient privacy of course, just the funny moments, nothing identifying. This community has been so helpful for the real talk side of dental assisting and I think we could use a lighthearted thread for once.

Im resigning tomorrow. I cannot take it any longer. I dont have a back up plan. Some words of aspiration would be lovely. Thank you.

How do you guys deal with other lazy DAs? In our clinic, we are to help each other whether it’s setting up, clean etc. especially when it’s busy. I have this one girl I have to deal with all the time.

She purposely slacks and goes to the bathroom for ages and just waits for me to do it. I purposely slow down too because I already help her so much and have noticed it often. Even with their surg room, it’s their responsibility to clean up whatever procedure they worked on.

I have no choice but to step up because my lead DA tells me to help her.

passed all three DANB CDA exams: Infection Control (ICE), RHS, and General Chairside (GC). I took my exams yesterday and received my results today.
I was just like many of you—worried, stressed, and unsure—but now that I’ve passed, I know what to focus on and how to stay on the right track. If you prepare the right way, you can do it too, even all three exams at one time.
I’d be happy to guide anyone preparing. I can also share my own personal notes ,which helped me pass.

Is it worth the money to go to EFDA school if you are paying for it yourself? I am sure my job would pay for it but they haven’t offered and if they did, I don’t think I would accept it anyway as I’m sure there would be stipulations. Such as me agreeing to stay there for x amount of time. Not that I don’t absolutely love my office. Just the thought of being stuck in a contract and not being able to leave a job if something were to happen stresses me the fuck out😂 the school here is 5k. Every dental office seems to have assistants who aren’t EFDA though doing work treatments and procedures that are legally only should be done by either a dentist or an EFDA. So wondering if the extra credentials even mean anything? Will I be able to negotiate for higher pay if i look for a new job? Or do they not care whether your EFDA or not

My Dr is buying a portable xray since our wall mount recently broke. I’ve used the nomad and a vatech ezray and liked both of them but Dr is saying those are the more expensive options. She’s looking at cheaper options that i’ve never used or heard of and she asked me to post here to see the general consensus of best / cheapest portable xray options !! thanks :-)

Hello everyone, I wanted to ask about how to start dental assistanting job haunting in the U.S. should I start searching online or in person searching?

Thank you in advance

hi everyone, I just wanted to warn all the dental assistants around morris county NJ area. there is a doctor named Dr. Zaidi who works at The Advanced Dental Center of Cedar Knolls. he is currently "hiring" and doing work interviews. BEWARE, if you work with this fraud make sure you don't leave the office until he compensates you!!!!! I worked with him yesterday and he did not want to compensate me. a day passed and nothing, so I had to threaten legal action and he finally compensated me. BEWARE HE LIKES TO NOT PAY ASSISTANTS FOR THERE WORK SHIFT.

I just started in a private office about a month ago. It is in a state I am not yet licensed so am working front desk and learning but will be DA again soon. There is so much drama in this office it makes my head spin and I have no idea how to keep my hands clean. There are 3 women + manager besides me who work front desk, and two other assistants. Who ever is not in the room gets talked shit about basically by everyone else. I try to be friendly with everyone. Manager A and front desk girl B are friends outside of work and B is a tattletale but otherwise fine. Manager A took me for a ride the other day to tell me not to be friends with front desk girl C because she is a backstabber and will talk shit about me?? Which I thought was crazy for a manager to say to me. I let her know politely I am friendly with everyone but don’t really consider anyone my “friend” yet and she didn’t really seem to like that answer. Front desk girl c ended up asking me today what me and manager talked about on our ride and telling me how her and B girl are always talking shit about everyone etc. she also told me they are trying to fire one of the assistants and that’s basically why I am here. I feel so nervous if I say or do the wrong thing or make friends with the wrong person I will be on the chopping block already. Advice??

It something that interests me and I wantt to know how to start. Like can someone tell me what do i do exactly?