Dental assistant employment opportunities are numerous and offer women and men of all ages, races and ethnic backgrounds a choice of dentistry work settings.
General dentistry practice: This type of dental practice represents the majority of dental practices in both the public and private sectors offering a full range of dental services to restore, replace and straighten teeth as well as provide preventive services to save and protect teeth. The dental assistant’s role in this type of practice will have the greatest variety of duties in a team environment that in addition to working with the dentist they may also work with specialist dentists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, dental technicians and dental prosthetists. The general dental practice can be either a solo (one dentist) or group (two or more dentists) practice.
Specialty dentistry practice: This type of dental practice concentrates its services to a specialised area of oral health care, which can be periodontics, paediatric dentistry, endodontics, orthodontics, prosthodontics and oral surgery. The specialist practices require a team approach to achieve quality outcomes, which demands an intense focus by the dental assistant on precision of specific duties.
Community or school-based public dental health clinic: The Community dental clinics in regional and rural areas provide routine and emergency dental services for eligible adults who hold a Pension card, Health Care card or Seniors card. Patients are on waiting lists to be seen. The school dental clinics aim to ensure that children have the opportunity to reach adulthood with good oral health and to develop the skills to maintain it. The dental assistant performs a variety of clinical duties and works as a team with dentists and dental therapists to educate and motivate the community in the principles of preventive dentistry and responsibility for their own oral health.
The Australian Defence Force (Army, Navy or Air Force): Dental care is one of the health services provided to all military personnel. It is available in military dental clinics on ships and at bases. Dental assistants perform clinical duties with dentists and dental hygienists and may also help in managing the military clinic.
Hospital dental clinic: Special needs dental care is offered through the hospital dental clinics for the members of the community with chemical, medical, mental and physical challenges. Hospital dental clinics also represent the clinical training facility for students in most of the dental areas. The dental assistant role requires a high level of caring and sensitivity to the needs of others and they will work through their dental career with experienced and training dentists, specialist dentists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, dental technicians and dental prosthetists.
The dental assistant has exceptional career opportunities on their own or in combination with chairside assisting to work as practice managers, dental treatment coordinators, research assistants, educators, consumer advocates, dental sales representatives and consultants in an array of flexible work schedules.
Practice Managers: Dental assistants can apply their experience and knowledge of planning, communications and customer care in a supervisory role to manage the practical day-to-day business of the dental practice. The responsibilities of managing the business aspect of health care also involve accounting and staff management skills.
Dental Treatment Coordinators: Dental assistants in this position have excellent organisational skills, advanced communication skills and a high level of confidence and enthusiasm with solid clinical knowledge. This role involves working one-on-one with patients to ensure their questions are answered about dental treatment options, the fees involved and the scheduling of appointments. Some dental practices offer this personalised service to their patients, as it may translate to efficient time management of the whole team.
Research Assistants: Dental research is about exploring and gaining new knowledge and information on all sciences relevant to dentistry and to the oral cavity and associated structures in health and disease. The dental assistant can be employed on a contract by a university or research facility to assist with the collection of dental records and delivery of dental care in clinical trials.
Educators: Dental assistants can apply the skills and knowledge from their work experience in assisting with teaching dental, dental assistant, dental hygienist and dental therapist students in their respective training programs. This dental career avenue can lead toward advanced qualifications and degrees.
Consumer Advocates: Dental assistants may come to concentrate their dentistry work on specific oral health issues that relate to population-based oral health concerns. They stay well informed of the current research and activities to take on an active role of informing, educating and advising the public through health promotion.
Dental Sales Representatives: Dental assistants can apply their valuable working knowledge of dental products as a dental sales representative for a product or service company in the dental industry. They are responsible for promoting the company’s products primarily to dentists, but also to other dental professionals.
Consultants: Dental assistants that have achieved a level of clinical efficiency in time management that combines effective business and patient-centred principles can choose to share their achievements with dental professionals on the speaker circuit, delivering educational lectures or courses and/or tailor to an individual dental practice through onsite consultation. They can also be employed by dental companies to create and deliver education material to healthcare professionals and the public as an Educational Consultant.