As my “about me” section says, I am a dental assisting instructor at a local community college. Since I am not a classically trained educator, I seek ideas from my reading public. Whether you are a dentist, assistant, hygienist, other dental professional, or just a “civilian” who seeks oral health care, I seek ideas regarding patient education. What are things you want to know? From the professionals – what do new assistants need to know before coming into the profession full time to help your practice better educate your patients? Anyone reading who seeks dental treatment, what do you want to be educated on and how to you want to be educated on it?
My main objective over the next few years of teaching is to have my students better understand the patient, better understand the hows and whys of dentistry, and better understand their education. Thanking you in advance.
When I visit offices for evaluation and training I see so many dental employees that lack basic customer service skills. I mean the proper handshake (not the limp hand), the introduction, the helping with the coat, asking if there is anything they can do to make the visit nicer…you get the picture. Please mention that texting in front of a patient is never okay. Chewing gum is never okay. Don’t get me wrong – for the most part, we have it right. But there’s always room for improvement. So glad we have educators like you out there!
teresaduncan,
Thank you so much for your input. I stress to my students that texting and gum chewing aren’t okay. I hope they listen! There is always room for improvement!
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If i were to go back in time to when i first started my dental assistant classes. I would of spended my time a lot wiser. I recall a lot of times where we were done nothing, we finished our work and were just chit-chatting or taking breaks and I just wished I had spended that time practicing more and enchaining the skills of either taking impressions, making temps, or positioning the x-ray cone. I really encourage you as an instructor to push them to take advantage of classroom setting and tools as much as possible. Because the faster you develop the skill the smoother the ride is.
Also another area they barely touched on was on communicating with the patient. Interacting and communicating to them the treatment plan also is something that you develop over time and I dont recall any lessons in these area. And they should focus on this more because well we are the first to greet them and they do interact a lot more with us. Give tips on how to make patients more comfortable. I was very shy at first but working with different people on a daily basis really brought me out my shell.