Dental Assistant

Certificate of Completion

(575) 527-7653

Dental assisting is a field that is both challenging and rewarding. Dental assistants are people who like helping others, enjoy working closely with patients and other members of the dental team, and like working with their hands. In fact, assistants frequently are relied on as the dentist’s “other set of hands.”

There is no lack of variety in the types of tasks that dental assistants perform. They prepare equipment, materials, and instruments for patient care; perform sterilization and disinfections procedures; provide patients with instructions for dental procedures; create temporary crowns; provide coronal polishing and placement of sealants; take impressions of teeth; create study casts (molds); take and review patient medical histories; expose and develop radiographs; and a variety of other duties. They may also be responsible for administrative tasks, such as billing, patient verification, scheduling of various types of treatment appointments, and material inventory.

Assistants may work in a general-practice office where a dentist provides multiple types of treatment, including restorative/operative work (fillings), prosthetics (crowns, bridges, and dentures), and perhaps some surgery. They may want to specialize for work in periodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, pedodontics, or orthodontics.

In the state of New Mexico, dental assistants can become certified to perform the following expanded duty tasks: radiology (taking X-rays), coronal polishing (polishing of teeth and removal of stains), fluoride treatments (the act of placing fluoride on a patient’s teeth), and sealant placement (used to prevent decay). These certifications are obtained through the State Dental Board and are a portion of the Dental Assisting National Board Certification Exam.

The Dental Assistant program at DACC is nationally accredited by the American Dental Association, Commission on Dental Program Accreditation. It is also recognized by the New Mexico State Board of Dentistry as a continuing-education provider.

Program Admission Special Requirements

The Dental Assistant program is a limited-entry, special-application program. When a candidate is considered for acceptance into the program, the following factors are taken into account:

• High school and/or college transcripts and GPA
• Health Occupations Basic Entrance Test (HOBET) scores
• Proof of residence
• Copy of current healthcare provider CPR card and immunizations
• Completion of ENGL 111G and computer literacy course—required prior to applying (completion of other general education and related requirements also considered)
• Completion of program application (submitted before deadline)

Certificate (45 credits)

NOTE: Courses preceded by an asterisk (*) must be completed before a student can apply to the Dental Assistant program. Courses appearing in italics are identical to those offered at New Mexico State University Las Cruces (main) Campus.