Dental Assistant

Quick Facts

• Role: Dental Assistant

• Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00am–4:30pm

Description

The Dental Assistant is an integral member of the dental treatment team, assisting the dentist in direct patient care and independently performing clinical, dental laboratory, and administrative/clerical functions. The role includes safe, procedure-based four-handed chair-side assistance, diagnostic-quality digital radiographs, operatory preparation and turnover, and support for specialty procedures. The assistant also provides procedure-specific patient education and helps maintain dental equipment.

Responsibilities

• Perform four-handed chair-side dental assisting and dental laboratory procedures

• Follow patient safety processes including infection control, patient identification, time-out, iMed informed consent, medication reconciliation, and hand-off communication

• Prepare and stock operatory equipment/materials before treatment and clean the operatory after dismissal

• Capture diagnostic quality digital radiographs (intraoral and extraoral)

• Assist and anticipate provider needs during restorative, oral surgery, periodontal, endodontic, prosthodontic, and implant procedures

• Prepare and mix dental materials per manufacturer instructions

• Apply cavity bases/liners, desensitizing agents, fluoride, bonding agents, and topical anesthesia as prescribed

• Fabricate and remove temporary crowns/temporaries; remove sutures and periodontal/socket dressings

• Perform coronal polishing of natural teeth

• Provide procedure-specific patient education and post-operative instructions

• Perform routine maintenance on equipment (e.g., suction traps, water lines) and perform appropriate laboratory duties (cleaning/polishing dentures, pouring/trimming stone models, fabricating trays, bite rims, vacuum-formed stints, soft guards, fluoride trays)

• Use electronic dental records to enter and retrieve data

Benefits

• Competitive salary with regular salary increases

• Paid Time Off: 37–50 days of annual paid time off per year (including annual leave, sick leave, and paid federal holidays)

• Parental leave after 12 months of employment (up to 12 weeks paid)

• Child care subsidy after 60 days of employment (eligibility-based)

• Retirement: traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401(k) with up to 5% employer contributions

• Insurance: federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many options may continue into retirement)

• Telework: not authorized; Virtual: not a virtual position