A dental assistant is a person with a secondary medical education (nurse, paramedic, obstetrician) who has undergone advanced training and works as an assistant to the corresponding specialist.
Why do you need a nurse in dentistry?
Odontology is a narrow medical specialization. To work in this area, special knowledge and a level of training are required, because when rendering dental care, high-tech equipment, tools, devices and materials are used, protocols that you need to know by heart are followed.
The presence of an assistant at the dentist's reception and work in 4 hands is the standard of modern dentistry. The coordinated work of two specialists helps to increase productivity, to provide better and faster medical services and, in emergency cases, prehospital care.
As a rule, the first contact with the patient is made by an assistant, inviting him to go to the office. Properly started communication already at this stage creates the prerequisite for the patient to have confidence in the clinic and the specialists working in it.
The doctor’s attitude to work, the quality of treatment and the speed of his work largely depend on the degree of understanding and trust of the doctor and the nurse. Each doctor adheres to his taboos in therapy and the assistant must take this into account. Therefore, in many clinics in the country, a rule is introduced: each doctor has a personal assistant.
Dental Assistant Responsibilities
The work of a nurse is not as simple as it seems at first glance. What are her responsibilities:
- Preparation of the office for reception.
Morning, "inter-patient" and evening cleaning of the office lies on the shoulders of the nurse. Before the reception, the assistant prepares all the necessary tools and materials, eliminates equipment malfunctions, if any. The collection of material in the office before admission is based on the goal (which you also need to know in advance): caries - filling materials; endodontics - everything for root canal treatment; hygiene - ultrasound nozzles and sandblasting and so on.
- Compliance with cleanliness and sterility.
The words "medicine" and "sterility" can hardly do without each other. The nurse must carefully clean and tidy the office after the previous patient and before inviting the next. The possibility of developing complications of treatment or even infection with an infectious disease depends on the sterility of the instruments and the cleanliness of the installation and items directly in contact with patients.
- Accounting and storage of dental materials.
Good treatment requires quality, non-expired materials, the expiration dates of which are monitored by a nurse. Also, in the assistant’s bedside table there should be a certain list of preparations and dental supplies for the most quick and comfortable work.
- Filling out medical records.
The following documentation is filled out: schedule of general cleaning, quartzization, writing off of consumables, sterilization logs. Also, in some clinics there is a special journal where nurses write comments to each other.
- Performing radiographic images as ordered by a doctor.
Taking pictures for diagnostic purposes is the work of an assistant. In order to complete the task correctly, you need to know the anatomy, equipment and master the skills of performing x-rays, which have their own nuances.
- The implementation of medical care in emergency conditions.
In such cases, the sister does only what the doctor says, but again you need to know that when asked to bring “everything for hypertension” is a tonometer and certain antihypertensive drugs, and for “everything for anaphylactic shock” it is at least adrenaline and prednisone, the introduction of which will be carried out by a nurse.
All this lies on the shoulders of the nurse, and this is far from all her responsibilities.
Education
Many people ask themselves: why do we need a medical education and, especially, a specialist’s certificate to work as an assistant? At first glance, it seems that this work does not require in-depth knowledge and everyone can learn it. But this is not at all true. The thing is that even for the provision of simple first aid, you need knowledge in the field of medicine, including anatomy, human physiology, pharmacology, and so on. You can list endlessly. Take, for example, sterilization of instruments.
To do this, you need to know all the stages of the process, the rate of exposure in solutions, their dilution, which microorganisms affect and which which are not, and so on. Theory and practice for future work can be obtained at nursing courses in dentistry. All the basic information that is listed above lies on the shoulders of teachers in medical colleges and schools.
How to get a specialist certificate?
First you need to finish a medical school and get a diploma. Without this document, no one has the right to issue a certificate. In any city, even in the smallest, there is at least one center for advanced training of medical workers. Directions are diverse: nursing in dentistry, massage, cosmetology, medical statistics and so on. To get to these courses is not difficult: you only need a diploma, a work book and a passport. But courses are not free and by no means always cheap.
There are two more options for obtaining a certificate:
- The first way: an educational institution can go towards it. That is, students can be sent for additional education at the end of the final course, and they will graduate with a diploma and a certificate of nursing in dentistry. With the assistance of a medical college or school, training will be faster and cheaper.
- The second way: the employer can pay for these courses for the future employee. If the organization is interested in an employee, with education and documents, the order is complete, but there is no document on advanced training - the clinic itself pays and sends the applicant for courses to receive a specialist certificate.
The work of a nurse in dentistry is very multifaceted and complex, but at the same time interesting and highly paid. If you understand that this work is for you - feel free to choose one of the ways to get the specialty "Nursing in Dentistry" and go towards your desire.