In Honor of National Dental Assistant week, I decided to interview a couple of my awesome dental assistants. Without them, my job would be 1000% more harder and a lot less fun. This post contains good information on the not so obvious parts of Assisting!

Preemptive thanks to @paige.westermann and @traylee1245 for a) being great assistants and b) allowing me to interview them

1. How long have you been working as a Dental Assistant?
   • Tracy: Just shy of a year
   • Paige: A year and a half
2. Did you attend any formal Dental Assisting schooling? And do you think it is beneficial to go to Dental Assisting School?
   • Tracy: No previous Assisting school, and from what I have learned so far it is a waste of time
   • Paige: I did a year of assisting school and it was 100% a waste of time
3. What are your Favorite Procedures to assist with?
   • Tracy: I like assisting with extractions and doing quadrants of composite fillings
   • Paige: …Referral appointments lol
4. What has been the most Eye-Opening part of assisting?
   • Tracy: I did not realize how important your oral health is to your overall health
   • Paige: Dealing with patients who, for lack of a better term, are not that joyful to deal with
5. What part of Dentistry do you Like the Most?
   • Tracy: That is hard to say, because I like pretty much everything we do
   • Paige: Ditto
6. Is it difficult to switch and assist different doctors in the office?
   • Tracy: Yes, only because doctors have different tempos at which they work
   • Paige: Hard to tell, I have only assisted for one dentist
7. What is something that you didn’t know about dentistry that you think everyone should know?
   • Tracy: I was never taught how to floss correctly, and now that I see the correct way, it is so much easier!
   • Paige: Along the same lines, but for brushing and how important it really is.
8. What can your dentist do to help make your job easier/more enjoyable?
   • Paige: Know when to be serious, but also be able to not take everything so seriously. I like it when the Doc is able to loosen up a little and joke around
   • Tracy: I enjoy when the dentist explains/teaches to me the thought process behind why/how we do procedures
9. What Grinds your Gears the most during assisting?
   • Tracy: When patients try to blame the dentist, and does not take responsibility for not taking care of their teeth…
   • Paige: When patients don’t cooperate with what we’re asking them to do…
10. If there was one thing you could change about your job, what would it be?
    • Tracy: I would love to be able to do more things such as the expanded functions of fillings etc.
    • Paige: I would never do a perio chart again
11. Last but not least, Give me your best patient interaction story?
    • Tracy: The most funny thing is when patients tell us about trying to adjust their dentures at home with power tools
    • Paige: I had a patient tell me he drinks 12 Mountain Dews a day…….

Again, a big thank you to my assistants and to all assistants out there on National Dental Assistant week!