Dental Assisting

Dental Assisting students will be introduced to techniques for exposing digital intra-oral full mouth series and extra-oral dental radiographs on manikins. The student will learn how to evaluate these images for diagnostic quality using the Criteria for Radiographic Acceptability. The students will also learn the process for exporting radiographs to other dental healthcare providers. Students will document radiology services on electronic dental software.

This course provides information on the history of dentistry, members of the dental healthcare team and their roles in the practice of dentistry. The student will be performing the CDC Standards of Infection Control in Dental Settings while learning chairside skills such as taking and recording medical and dental histories, dental charting, and the use of the air-water syringe and oral evacuation devices. Students will identify dental hand and rotary instruments and practice instrument transfer. Students will demonstrate proficiency in chairside ergonomics and oral hygiene instruction.

This course is a continuation of DAST 124 Clinical Assisting I. This course will provide the student with increased knowledge and clinical skills to perform the major responsibilities of a chairside dental assistant in general and specialty dental practices. The management of special needs patients, and nutrition and dental health will also be studied.

The student will be introduced to the responsibilities of dental office management and the administrative assistant, including scheduling and appointment control, patient and business records management, recall systems, financial transactions, telephone technique and etiquette, dental insurance, inventory control, and application of dental practice management software. Information regarding patient rights and privacy under the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) will be practiced.

The student will gain an advanced level of skills and knowledge to provide intra-oral patient care procedures, beyond traditional dental assisting duties. Procedures emphasized will be those legally allowed by the North Dakota State Board of Dentistry for Registered Dental Assistants. The course includes didactic, laboratory and clinical instruction. The student will perform procedures according to specific criteria using typodonts or patients. Infection control, safety and standard precautions will be applied.

This course will provide dental assisting students the opportunity to observe the dental assistant’s role in specialty dental practices, such as Endodontics, Periodontics, Orthodontics, Pedodontics, Prosthodontics and Oral Surgery. Students will become familiar with terminology, specific needs of the patients, tray setups and procedures unique to each specialty.

This course provides an overview of the biological sciences and how it relates to dentistry. The student will become familiar with the following subjects: Oral histology and embryology, head and neck anatomy, landmarks of the face, oral pathology, microbiology, and pharmacology.

This course focuses on the practice of clinical skills and expanded functions of a dental assistant. Students will intern one day per week, (8 hours per day), for eight weeks under the supervision of a dentist. Students will utilize their entry-level and mid-level dental assisting skills as appropriate. Faculty will define expectations, discuss progress, and evaluate experiences using feedback provided from the student mentor in the dental practice.

This course focuses on refining the dental assisting skills and expanded functions as a student intern under the supervision of a dentist. Students will utilize their advanced dental assisting skills and will experience the day-to-day operation of the clinical dental assistant’s role in the dental practice. Students will complete a minimum of 240 hours of internship. The faculty will define expectations, discuss progress, and evaluate experiences, using feedback provided by the mentor in the dental practice. Students will be assigned to a minimum of two dental practices. At least 50% of the clinical affiliation will be in a general dentistry practice. Successful completion of this internship is required to graduate from this accredited Dental Assisting Program.