What Qualities and Skills Make a Good Dental Assistant

You don't need a great smile to be a great dental assistant, but it helps! A good disposition, a positive attitude, compassion, and understanding are other important qualities to have. You also need excellent time management, organizational, and communication skills to be a successful dental assistant. Here are a few qualities and skills that will make you a favorite dental assistant among patients, dentists, and the whole dental practice:

Dental Assistants Communicate Well

From a simple appointment reminder phone call to a comprehensive patient report, your job tasks require effective communication. When patients enter the office, you greet them and explain what they can expect from the dentist. You listen to their concerns and answer any questions they have. You teach them about proper oral hygiene. But you also communicate with your team members like the dentists, dental hygienists, and other dental assistants. You coordinate with them on tasks that need to be completed or share concerns about a particular patient. You answer calls and emails, and occasionally troubleshoot problems with an insurance claim. You're the communication hub for the whole practice.

Dental Assistants Provide Compassion and Empathy

Even if you love going to the dentist, you probably realize that not everyone does. Kids get anxious about hearing the loud drill and shy away from those scary-looking tools. Even some adults get nervous. Your job as a dental assistant is to ease that anxiety. Put yourself in their shoes and try to calm their nerves and allay their fears. A warm smile and comforting words can go a long way to making patients feel better about routine appointments and more complicated procedures. Listen to their concerns, explain what they can expect from the visit, and be sure to take enough time so they really feel heard and understood.

Time Management and Multitasking

There's a shortage of dentists in the U.S. which means dental offices are often very busy places¹. To keep things running smoothly, you need excellent time management skills and the ability to multitask. You may be on the phone when patients arrive or may be looking at available appointments at the same time a vendor needs sign-off for an order. There's lots of activity and lots of interruptions. Can you handle it? Dental assistants have many responsibilities and often need to swiftly shift gears with the ability to get back on task. Managing your own calendar is only part of the job, though. You also need to handle a puzzle of appointments, treatments, procedures, and staff calendars. You need to know who's where and when, and understand how to fill in gaps. For example, if a patient calls the office to cancel, are you just going to let that slot sit idle? No! You're going to call another patient who's on your waitlist and get them in for that overdue visit.

Organizational Skills in Dental Office

Well-organized dental assistants make a real difference in how a dental office is run and the results patients see. Your organizational skills start at the front office where you keep people and appointments running in the right direction. And those skills in organization are even more important when you sterilize equipment, set up for an exam, and hand off tools to the dentist during the four-handed dentistry process. You need systems in place that are actionable, repeatable, and always dedicated to improving patient outcomes. From data entry of in-patient records to inventory control of office supplies, no detail is too small, and they all add up to big results.

Dental Assistants Have Good Manual Dexterity

The ability to use your hands well, especially in small spaces, will come in handy. Manual dexterity means you can use your hands and fingers to execute precise movements. Since the mouth is a small space, you must move skillfully so you don't hurt the patient or make a mistake. Good eye-hand coordination can also help as you use small tools, take an impression, or capture an X-ray.

Attention to Detail in Dental Practices

In dentistry, the small details can make a big difference so it's important to have a good eye for detail. For example, when you take a dental X-ray, you need to pay close attention to the image. If you didn't capture the right area or if the image isn't clear, it can result in a misdiagnosis. When you're passing instruments to the dentist, it's not enough to get the right tool for the procedure, you need to know how your dentist wants it handled. And your ability to find errors in paperwork can mean the difference between a profitable business that receives the payments it deserves and one that can't last the test of time.

Dental Assistants Love Learning

From its earliest days to the modern era, the one aspect of dentistry that doesn't change is that it's always changing. If you want to find success as a dental assistant, a love of learning will keep you ahead of the curve. New technologies bring significant advances. X-Rays are now digital, and dentures can be created with 3-D printing. Treatments and diagnoses are enabled with technology and software helps to schedule appointments, run the front office, and submit insurance claims. And there may be new updates and guidelines from the American Dental Association, your state, or the federal government that you need to become familiar with, or new studies that can impact the field of dentistry or oral care in general. Your passion for learning will help you keep up, stay confident, and get ahead.

Do you have what it takes to be a dental assistant? Lincoln Tech offers a Dental Assistant Training program that can prepare you for entry-level work in the field. Our program is offered in a blended learning delivery mode for your convenience and includes a clinical internship so you can practice the lessons you've learned in a real-world setting. Fill out the form to learn more now.

¹ Article titled "Dental schools and the future supply of dentists", published on September 08, 2023, and retrieved from https://adanews.ada.org/ada-news/2023/september/dental-schools-and-the-future-supply-of-dentists on March 26, 2024.

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