Dental Paper

Dental Assisting Program
Terri Deal from the dental assisting program here at DMACC.   Terri is a dental assistant and she works with the dental assisting students here at DMACC. A dental assistants assist the dentist provide more efficient dental treatment, by preparing the patient for treatment, sterilizing instruments, passing instruments during the procedure, holding a suction device, exposing dental radiographs, taking impressions, and fabricating provisional crowns.   We were lucky to be able to go over to the dental building and see the dental clinic. The dental clinic looked just like a dentist office. We also saw one of the classrooms that the students use in the program. I learned that you can get your teeth cleaned there like a normal dentist office so it give the students first hand experience.
In order to get accepted into the dental assisting program you must complete an application, meet the COMPASS or ACT assessment requirements, keyboard skills of 35wpm, high school biology grade of a “C” or higher. DMACC is accepting 44 students a year at this time. The program courses are a variety of dental science, dental anatomy, oral radiology, and others. To be certified dental assisting you have to take a national exam, or take the Iowa board of dental exam.
The employment potential of a dental assistant looks very good. A stating salary of a dental assistant is 15 to 17 dollars an hour. I am not very interested in the job because I don’t think I could deal with teeth everyday. [continues]

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