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Success in Pediatric Dental Assisting

Dental assistant practicing on dummyDo you want a career in an exciting and growing field? Dental assisting offers all kinds of benefits, and pediatric dentistry takes it one step farther with the opportunity to develop specialized skills and earn better pay!

How do you know if you’d be successful in pediatric dental assisting? Here are a few tips to help you decide if this career is right for you!

A Career in Dental Assisting

First, it’s good to get a feel for the experience of working as a dental assistant. This is a position where you often work alongside a dentist, helping him or her with patients’ oral care.

Depending on the size of the dental practice where you work, there might not be enough chairside assistance to fill your schedule, so you might also gain experience working at the front desk or in billing. In a larger practice, your role could be very specific, such as X-ray technician, hygiene assistant, and so on.

You can potentially move around until you find the role you like best, but the important thing is that going to a dental assistant school like PDAS prepares you for work in the dental industry as a whole, while still giving you the specialized knowledge to excel in pediatric dental assisting specifically.

Ability to Adapt

What you learn in pediatric dental assistant training will give you a broad overview of the job, but every dentist has a unique way of doing things. For instance, you might have to adapt significantly if you’re helping a left-handed dentist instead of a right-handed dentist!

More importantly, as someone who’s going to be working with children, you have to remember that no two children are the same. You’ll need to be adaptable and flexible to keep your young patients relaxed and cooperative during the appointment.

You’ll also have to be adaptable as new tools, techniques, and equipment change how your dentist works. Dental assisting requires a versatile and ever-changing set of skills, which means you can look forward to never having a dull day!

 

Loving Kids

Technical skill, education, and adaptability play a big role in dental assisting, but I don’t think there’s anything more important to your success as a pediatric dental assistant than simply loving kids. Are you comfortable around them? Do you love helping them? Does it give you a sense of pride to see their smiles and know that you played an instrumental role there?

While many kids are easy, some can be very anxious, and it’s your job to be patient with them. It’s not always easy, but it’s definitely rewarding. If you find yourself excited by the prospect of helping kids, then becoming a pediatric dental assistant will probably be a great fit for you!

There are many attributes that go into becoming a successful pediatric dental assistant. In the end, there are so many possibilities for your future career in the field of dentistry, and it all starts with the right schooling.

Look into PDAS and what our program offers. We’re always here to answer your questions and help you reach your potential.

Here’s to a prosperous and exciting career!

~ Dr. Rhea Haugseth