Dental School... or Not?

I am currently enrolled in Rio Salado's dental assisting program. It is about a year long program but all the classes are online with a summer internship at a dentist office. When I am finished I will be certified and xray certified. I spoke to several dentists in my area seeing what the required for a dental assistant and they all wanted someone with experiance and Xray certified. I am also looking at this as a moble career since my hubby just joined the Army and most states require some form of certification.
They program I am doing is very easy takes just a few hours a week and I dont have to find child care while I'm in school which is so nice. If you are interrested look around into the diffrent programs, I know the community colleges like Rio are a lot cheaper then the private one like Everest.
Hope this helps.
K.

I would recommend that you go to school for dental assisting. You can learn the techniques that that particular office uses during in office training but that doesn't mean that you are learning everything you should know about teeth. Prior to becoming a SAHM I was a dental assistant. I worked as a pediatric dental assistant, a general dental assistant & an orthodontic assistant. I went to college for a certificate program in dental assisting that was 2 semesters and a 6 week summer class that consisted of interning and 1 day/week of class. I am very glad that I chose that route because I did work with other assistants that did not go to school for assisting & just had on the job training and everyone of them did not have all of the knowledge that I feel is necessary to inform patients of why a procedure is being done & what exactly is being performed. You will also make more as an assistant that went to school so you should see your $ back. If you are only planning to work at an Orthodontic office I would say that it is not as necessary to go to school but by no means would be a waste of time. An education could never be wasted and can only help you in the long run. Some dentists actually not hire assistants without experience, they may post help wanted ads that say no experience necessary but it's very rare that they hire without experience. I interviewed at several practices prior to going to school & was turned down due to not having a dental education.

Good luck, it is a great profession!

Good luck!

Getting certified and trained through an accredited school is always a good thing. That office may not require it but another office may. You would want to position yourself for the greatest advantage. I hope this helps

i would see if you can get an appointment with a dentist in your area and discuss it with him. tell him you wanted to talk to the person who actually went to school for his job and what he feels would be the best option. if he says that schooling is a waste of time and that he would recommende learning in an office instead then ask him if he knows of any dentists in the area who would be willing to train you. you never know he might even say he would...could be a good way to get your foot in the door for a job in the near future if you sometimes stroke their ego and say you wanted to ask a professional.

I went through a dental assistant school program. Dental assistansts can work without a license but Registered dental assistants have a license. You will have to take an exam to get it. If you have a license, legally there are more duties you can perform and usually you can earn more money.

That would depend on the job you want. If you want a front desk position, that can be on the job training. However, if you want to work chairside with patients, there are state regulations that you must have a license to assist, which requires formal training and a state exam.

A few years ago you could be trained by the dentist, however regulations have changed in recent years.