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How to become a Dental Assistant
By: Max Stein
Becoming a dental assistant offers one of the fastest educational paths to entering the rapidly expanding healthcare field. Dental Assistant Job Description Dental assistants provide support functions for dentists including assisting with dental procedures, lab work and office functions. When helping with patient’s dental procedures, a dental assistant may be involved with: - Preparing dental instruments
- Gathering patient’s dental records
- Handing instruments to dentist during patient procedures Keeping the patient’s mouth dry during procedures Instructing patients on proper oral healthcare
- Taking and preparing x-rays
- Applying anesthetics
Lab duties of dental assistants include making casts of teeth, creating temporary crowns and cleaning dental prosthetics. Office support includes scheduling appointments, receiving patients in the office, billing, ordering supplies and keeping patient records. Most dental assistants work in dentist’s offices. A small portion may work in hospitals or doctor’s offices. Similar to dental hygienists, up to one third of dental assistants work part-time. Salary Ranges / Job Outlook for Dental Assistants Like many healthcare fields, the demand for dental assistants is expected to grow faster than average over the next decade. The median hourly pay rate for dental assistants is $13.10 and the high and low range of the scale is $8.45 at the low end and $19.41 at the high end. Advancement in this career is limited due to the low education requirements. Some dental assistants advance to office management or product sales representatives. Others go to school for an additional year to become a dental hygienist. Dental assisting is very much an entry level position, but experience in the field and additional education can be very lucrative. Education / Getting Started Several educational paths exist to become a dental assistant. Most dental assistants learn on the job, however more and more dentists hire assistants with formal training. The American Dental Association accredits one and two year dental assistant programs leading to certificates or associate’s degrees. Some schools offer four to six month dental assisting programs, but these are not accredited. A clinical rotation is part of the training. Most States require dental assistants to be registered or licensed. Dental assistants who perform x-rays may be regulated by their State as well. The Dental Assisting National Board offers certification that meets the registration requirements in over 30 states. CPR training and continuing education may be a requirement of a dental assistant. Dental Assistant Summary Training to be a dental assistant is a great way to get into the healthcare field. It offers a great employment outlook, but additional education is needed to get into more lucrative jobs. www.top-colleges.com About The Author Max Stein is a freelance writer who writes about business, education and marketing. Contact him at maxstein_9@hotmail.com What do you think? http://degreesource.blogspot.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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How to Benefit from the Mind-Body Connection
(excerpt)
You are about to gain insight into the
mind-body connection. The number of
people who truly understand these principles on our
planet are relatively few.
There is an undeniable connection between our minds and
bodies, you can learn
to use this fact to your benefit.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of "Love, Medicine and
Miracles" was once a
distraught cancer surgeon until he
began to understand the greater principles
of the mind-
body connection. He felt dragged down by the artificial
barriers
that existed between patient and doctor, and the
helplessness he often felt as
a result of his inability
to effectively serve those patients. Eventually, those
barriers
were disintegrated by Dr. Siegel's recognition
and growing understanding of the
mind-body connection and
how it could serve his patients and himself.
Dr. Siegel, or Bernie as he began to have his patients
refer to him, had some
startling realizations as a cancer surgeon. He found that
there were actually
quite a few people in the world that successfully beat
the statistics on cancer
survival. He began to recognize that a patient's ability
to defeat something as
serious as cancer had to do with the patient's mind and
attitude about their
disease.
If you would like to see the rest of
this article, please go here:
http://www.tobeinformed.com/repository/mind-body.html
copyright 2004 - David Snape
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