Dental Assistant
What the work is
Prepares patients for dental examination, and assists dental practitioners, Hygienists and Therapists in providing care and treatment.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Assists dental practitioners during dental procedures
- Sterilises and prepares dental instruments and equipment
- Takes and develops dental radiographs (X-rays)
- Prepares dental materials such as cements, impression materials and restorative materials
- Provides fluoride therapy by applying remineralising solutions and desensitising agents
- Educates patients about maintaining good oral health, along with oral health care procedures
- Maintains and updates patient records and treatment plans
- Applies infection control procedures in the dental practice
- Orders and maintains dental supplies and equipment
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a busy family dental clinic in a fictional suburban shopping strip. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A nervous child hops out of the chair smiling and asks to come back
- The room is turned over in minutes and the dentist's morning runs on time
- A patient finally understands how to look after their teeth and tells you so
Hard days
- A patient who is so anxious they cannot sit still and the schedule is tight
- Cleaning, sterilising and setting up the same tray over and over
- A day where two patients cancel and the one after is running late
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 442331, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.