Dental Assistant: Role and Responsibilities

Read the case scenario below and answer the following eight (8) questions.

Suggested word count – 800 words

 Case scenario

You are currently employed as a dental assistant in a private practice. Your primary role is to prepare for, and assist with, oral health care procedures.  This includes managing the dental client, setting up the treatment room, preparing the necessary equipment, instruments and materials and to assist the operator during the delivery of these procedures. Your first client is Mrs Jonas, a 68 year old woman who is a new client.

1.    Mrs Jonas, seated in the waiting room, returns the medical history questionnaire you have asked her to complete with several sensitive sections unanswered. Describe:

a)    How you would approach Mrs Jonas to complete the questionnaire

b)    When you enter her data you note that Mrs Jonas suffers from a heart condition. What would this indicate for Mrs Jonas’s treatment?

c)    The dentist after reviewing the medical history adds some handwritten notes which are illegible, what would you do?

2. As a dental assistant you are required to consistently use safe work practices to minimise the risk of transmission of infection describe:

a)    how you maintain clean surfaces 

b)    when additional equipment, instruments, materials and medicaments are required how you would prevent cross contamination?

3. The dentist begins an oral examination and asks you to chart both existing treatments and proposed treatments