I am in my second week of dental assisting school. I knew the classes would be tough, and I'm doing fine with all the studying. My question is, did anyone else go to school for dental assisting (or hygiene) and have to deal with all sorts of rules, such as only wearing certain color hair ties, don't wear any jewelry, wear a certain kind of sock, change shoes between the classroom and the clinic, etc? They seem to be going a little overboard about it. Is it like that in a dental office as well? And while working as an assistant, do you write down a medical history for a patient, we are supposed to ask the patient every question on the sheet and write it down for them, but whenever I have gone to the doctor I fill it out myself and give it to the receptionist. And one final question: whenever I have gone to the dentist, they have never taken my blood pressure, pulse, and respirations, but we have to do that for every patient in school. As a working assistant, do you take vital signs? Thanks!
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Yes, to all of those questions,except the Dental assisting school part. I was trained on the job and have worked in many different dental offices. You will face rules like this and others. You may not see the need for the certain colors and socks, but most work places require a uniform of some sort. You may have more freedom with color or style at some places, at others, you will all wear the same thing.
The shoe part is to help keep down outside dirt and from tracking bacteria back and forth. It is also a very good idea to NOT wear your uniform to and from your office. Think about this- whatever you have come into contact with during your day is on your uniform. Now, you go home and hug your spouse, children, whomever. Now they have just hugged someone else's germs.YUCK!!!
As far as helping a patient fill out medical histories, I do it quite often. Yes, you need to ask them every question on the sheet. It is important information that the doctor needs to treat every patient in a safe manner. If a patient needs some help with this ,it really is not such a big deal. I am in the health care field because I enjoy patient contact and helping people. This is all part of it.
As far as taking vitals, I have worked at some offices where they do this routinely.Others ,not at all. It all depends on what the doctor wants. They all work differently and have certain ways they want things done. If you work in an Oral Surgeon's office, this is part of your job every day, every patient.
I know the school wants you to know how to do these procedures and you must do them while in school. You may work for a doctor that wants this, maybe not. But, at least you have some skills that can benefit you and you will be able to say that you know how to do all this stuff!
Being a dental assistant is all this and plenty more. You may be asked to clean the office as well, as a new assistant, you may get asked to do many things that you may feel are not " your job".
I have been asked to paint the office at one job I had. I did it, no biggie. There are far more rewarding aspects about being a dental assistant than the negatives. Don't focus on the things that you feel don't make sense or are not what you feel is technically your job. Working in a dental office is a team effort , every one has an equally important job. Good luck and I wish you a long and happy dental career.
Welcome to the life of Dental Hygiene/ Assisting school! I am in my second year of DH school and they are basically Nazi's about how you act, what you wear, how you present yourself etc. For DH school they are basically getting you ready for boards because that is how the board examiners expect you to be. There are a lot of things that change once you get into private practice. It becomes much more relaxed. We currently all wear the same scrubs, cant wear white shoes out of the building and everything that you are talking about. We also take vitals at every appt. but at every dental office I have ever been to you don't have to do that except for if you are going under general anesthesia at the oral surgeons. Hope this helps! Good Luck with school!!!
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