 Hello everybody, Andrea Mayeski here with dental little tutoring. So you are about to have your first day on the job as a dental assistant. You must be so excited. I'm excited for you because I still remember to this day. It was about 14 years ago, right before Christmas or right after Christmas. I just remember it being in December. I had my first job as a dental assistant. I had the interview a couple weeks before that. No idea what I was doing. It was probably my second interview of my entire life, literally, because my first job was at Subway. I had one interview. That's it. I got the job. The same thing for dental assistant. I wanted to work in the mall near my house. I got the job, which was so exciting, but I remember my first day. So my first day was not typical. So I'm going to talk to you guys about what to expect on your first day. And you might have a completely different experience. You might have the same experience as me, but it's nice to have an idea, right? Because if you've never been in a dental office before, like actually behind the scenes, you have no clue. And it's nice to be a little bit prepared even if you're not. So my first day on the job was a little bit different than what I will be talking to you guys about because I was taking over for another assistant, but she had gone on Matt leave early. So they needed somebody ASAP, the person who was the person. Yeah, because I don't even think she was an assistant at the time. I mean, she was, but not working as an assistant. She was helping to sterilize the instruments. She was actually taking over for that dental assistant because she had her baby early, but she didn't want to be a dental assistant. She's like, I want to go back to sterilizing instruments. You need to find somebody ASAP. So my first day on the job was literally that lady training me. And she was so nice, but you know, she had, she wasn't assisting. So she didn't really know where a lot of the things were. She didn't really know what to set up. I mean, she knew what to set up, but not really what the dentist wanted because there were four other ones in the practice, I believe four or five. So she could only kind of give me a general overall, right? Which was still very, very helpful. I don't remember thinking, I don't know what I'm doing. She was so helpful, but typically you will have somebody training you. Okay. So what I had was I did everything. I just had to, that lady set up the trays for me, which was really nice. But if the dentist needed something that wasn't on the tray, I didn't know where it was because it was my first day. And the office was going through renovations, so nobody knew where anything was. So the dentist would say to me, I'm looking for the Dura floor. Well, I knew I didn't know what that was. And I still remember her asking me this and me being like, maybe it's in here. So I would just look, look wherever this poor dentist, but she was so nice. She was so nice. Trust me. And I would go back to that lady who was helping me and I said, where's the Dura, Dura something? She's like, oh, Dura floor. Yes, that would be over here. Wait, it's not there. I don't know where it is. Right. And then the dentist would also say to me, okay, I need something. It's in a long blue tube. I actually, it's called this, but it could be called that, you know, so she, she just like always had like everything set up for her. Right. So her explaining to a new grad who didn't know what the heck I was doing was probably hard for her to, but she was so patient. And on my first day, you guys, a patient threw up all over me. It's never happened again since knock on wood. We were doing a sealant. So the dentist was actually doing the sealants and I was assisting and the patient just threw up all over us. I have like, I can't handle that when somebody else throws up, I want to like throw up and me talking about it makes me want to throw up. And you're all probably thinking that too, right? But here I was put on my mask. I mean, I think the mask was probably on, but I'm just cleaning it up. Didn't look like it phased me, but I was like, like, like vomiting inside. But I'm telling you guys all of this because this will not be your first day. Okay. So let me go on to what your first day will look like. Okay. So sorry, something's just popping up on my screen. There guys, sorry about that. Something was just popping up, but now it's gone. So your first day, this is probably what it will be like. Make sure to arrive half an hour early. Yes, there might be nobody there depending if you start in the morning or not, but arrive half an hour early. Because you want to be there at least 20 minutes early always. So if there's bad traffic, if you, if you don't know where to park, if you don't know which entrance to go in, if there's more than one office, you know, who knows, right? Arrive half an hour early. Somebody will likely be able to show you around. So typically if somebody's hiring a dental assistant, there's another dental assistant there to kind of show you around. You might not be doing much on your first day. You might just be simply watching. Bring a notepad and a pen, pencil, whatever to take notes. Do not just sit there or stand there and just, you know, nod and don't ask questions. Ask questions, you guys. If you don't know what questions to ask, ask things like when the dental hygienist needs a check, how do they let the doctor know? And does the doctor want me to remind them of that check? If they don't get up to check the patient after five minutes, because that's what some offices have, where the dental hygienist will come in, either leave a sticky note. There might be a note on the computer. They might just say, hey, doctor, so-and-so, I'm ready for a check and it's your job to keep the dentist paying attention because when they're in the middle of something, they're not going to get up and do the check. They might be thinking, okay, I'm just about done polishing the filling. I'm going to go and do the check as soon as we're done. They might forget. So it might be your job to remind them, right? Or the hygienist might just simply stand outside the door and do this, and then you have to be watching for that and tell the dentist you need a check. Who knows, right? So that's just kind of a question to ask. Another thing, just, you know, ask if you have questions. Hopefully, the dental assistant will probably show you what the schedule looks like, depending on if you have one column or two columns, and depending on if you are the dentist's only assistant. So is that assistant training you to take over her spot? Or is that assistant training you to work alongside with her? Because some offices have two columns where the one dental assistant takes the one column and then the other dental assistant takes the other column. So you never know. So ask questions like, okay, is this my column and this is your column? Or if there's only the one column, you know, say, okay, so this is my column here, right? You know, just ask questions like that. You will probably be in charge of bringing the patient back. So even if you're not sitting through any procedures for the day, it does show excellent, excellent, excellent initiative to tell the person who's training you, oh, our first patients here, would you like me to bring them back? That shows great initiative. There's nothing worse than just kind of like following along behind. I hate saying that. The other assistant and letting her do everything. Take initiative, you guys. So say your first patients here. Hopefully she's had time to go through the charts with you to explain the schedule because in the chart, that will usually show what that appointment is because the thing about dental offices sometimes is what appointment is on the computer might not be what's next because if they've had multiple appointments, it might say, oh, we are doing an ortho consult today. But in the chart, it says we've done that because it's crossed out, but we're doing a 3-6 occlusal today or upper left first molar, you know. So which one are we doing? So sometimes you have to think outside the box and look through all of that. But somebody should be helping you guys with that. I don't expect you guys to get that right away to be like, okay, the chart says a restorative appointment. The computer says, ortho consult. What do I set up for? What am I doing? You know, if you ever see that, then look in your clinical notes, which could be in a paper chart or could be on the computer chart and just see what the patient had done last time and that should kind of help you. If you're just not sure, don't be afraid to ask. Ask the dental assistant who is hopefully helping you or, you know, ask the dentist. People always seem so nervous to ask the dentist anything, but I don't see why, you know, because you'll be working with them. You need to feel comfortable, right? I know it's your first day. You're probably so nervous, but try not to act nervous, right? Ask questions. Take initiative, okay? So after any procedure is done. So your first day on the job, you're just probably watching to see, you know, where the dental assistant has her tray, how the dentist likes instruments passed to them because sometimes they actually like to take most of their instruments or other times like you'll be just passing everything. So you always have to be one step ahead. As an example, if the patient, if the dentist is putting edge on a tooth, then you know that soon you will have to take the edge from them, put over the high-speed suction to get some water and then spray that tooth after about 30 seconds, right? But obviously the first step is to take the edge from the dentist. So you want to be having your, you know, palm out, not in or this or this or whatever, palm out so that the dentist can put that edge right there. You take it away and then you're ready to go for the next step. But as well, the dentist won't be expecting you to know what they're thinking. After a month, they will be expecting you to know what they're thinking and trust me, it gets very, very easy. So don't be like, how do they know what the next step is? You will know. Trust me, you will know. But after the procedure, or I should say while the procedure's happening, it doesn't matter what it is, again, make yourself stand out. Say things like, oh, Mrs. Smith, how are you doing? Or, oh, Mrs. Smith, I noticed there's a lot of saliva starting to build up in the back of your mouth. I'm just going to turn on my slow-speed suction and suction that out for you. You know, there's nothing worse than not saying a thing or talking too much to the dentist. Like, hey, so how was your weekend? What are you doing? It's nice to do that, but not your first day, okay? In fact, patients even say that they like hearing the dentist and the assistant talk because it takes their mind off of, you know, I'm in the dental chair. I'm getting a needle and they like to see that they like talking to each other. But your first day, which you should still be talking, but you'll be paying more attention to what's happening, right? So if I sound confusing, let me know because I hope I didn't just make that sound confusing. So I want you to talk, but not too much, but also don't say anything. Okay, I know there's a fine line. But talk to your patient too. You know, even let's say the dentist is doing a filling and the dentist is checking the bite, telling them to grind from side to side. The patient opens. You could even step in and say, and how does that feel so far? I know it's hard to tell because the left side is pretty frozen, but how does that feel? You know, just step in, act like you're a part of the team, okay? Because you are, even if it's your first day. I also do suggest that after the procedure, you can even say, okay, Mrs. Smith, I'm just going to put your chair up. So, you know, put the chair up. There is usually a foot pedal on the ground to do that or on the side of the chair, but hopefully the dental assistant previously had just kind of shown you those because every chair is different. Trust me, sit the patient up and say any questions about anything so far or how does everything feel to you? You know, the dentist isn't expecting you to know everything. Like the dentist isn't expecting you to probably say, okay, so just so you know, no eating anything too hot for the next six hours or so because you will be pretty frozen, you won't be able to feel the bottom part of your lip, you know, things like that, which you will say over time. They don't expect you to know that per se and you don't want to say anything wrong. You know, if you say to them, your bottom lip on the left side will feel pretty frozen for the next six hours or so. And then the dentist says, Andrea, I froze the top. Their lip isn't going to be frozen. So if you don't really know what you're talking about, be careful kind of what you say, but there's no harm in saying hi miss or not, you know, hi, Mrs. Smith, but Mrs. Smith, I'm just going to sit you up now. Any questions for us at all or anything that you weren't quite sure of? You know, there's nothing wrong with that, right? And then afterwards, what I found that a lot of them like, meaning, you know, staff, dentists, receptionists is when you walk the patient out front. Do not say, okay, Mrs. Smith, see you later. Thanks, it was so nice to see you. There's nothing wrong with that, but it just looks more professional. If you say, okay, Mrs. Smith, I will be happy to walk you out. Here's our reception area. Just have a seat. The dentist just has to write up your chart and then I will bring it up to the ladies up at the front as soon as we're done, but just have a seat. They will call your name as soon as we're all set for you, you know, something like that because the receptionists don't like it when you bring the patient up to the front or the patient comes up to the front and they're hanging around waiting to, you know, pay. I just happened to have $20 here. They're just waiting to pay their bail. No, they don't like that because they're probably on the phone or talking to another patient right in front of them. So they don't want them hanging around the counter waiting to pay their bill. No, just have them have a seat. But sometimes the patient doesn't want to have a seat and that's okay. Like it does happen to me sometimes where I'll say, okay, Mrs. Smith, just have a seat. She's just on the phone right now, but it shouldn't be too much longer. And then Mrs. Smith says, oh, no, it's okay. I'll just kind of hang out here. Well, there's nothing you can do. I mean, you could say, no, please have a seat because she's busy. But I don't think that sounds very nice. So I just say, oh, okay, she's just on the phone though. So it might just be a couple of moments. If you have to use the washroom, if you need to get some water, just help yourself. It was so nice seeing you today. Enjoy the weather, you know, something like that, right? So walk the patient out. But then as soon as that's done, go back to the room, help clean up, okay? Because the other assistant has probably come in at that point again to start cleaning things up. And don't be afraid to ask questions. You know, you might say something like, oh, the prime and the bond. Since we'll be needing it for the next patient, should I just leave it out? Or do you guys prefer we wipe it and then put it away? Or do we just simply wipe it and leave it out? Like, what do you guys do? You know, I don't know. Just ask questions. There's nothing wrong with that. But another important thing is talk to the dentist. So he or she is probably taking notes in the chart while you guys are cleaning up. So if they're still in the room, say, hope that was okay. Is there anything I need to improve on yet? You know, there's nothing wrong with that, right? Or say, or even ask questions. Again, they love this. Say, oh, I noticed you were polishing with, I don't know. I can't even think of a question, but you could say something like, I don't know. I noticed you had left the edge on for a longer period of time than what I'm used to. Is that because it was thicker enamel there? Or, you know, how come you did that? I don't know. That's kind of a weird question, but don't be afraid to ask something. Like, oh, I see you did not use a rubber dam for this patient. Is that because they don't like the rubber dam? Or is that just because you don't use it on everybody? I don't know. Make conversations with the dentist. Even if you're terrified, just do it, right? Okay. So after the cleaning up, cleaning up, so please clean up. If for some reason they do not need you for something like they might say, this patient is very particular. I'm going to work on this patient, but you should have lunch or something because we do have a little bit of a break. You know what? Have lunch. Absolutely. But then go see if somebody else needs help, depending on the office, right? Like if you see another dental assistant is just trying to clean up her instruments, say, oh, can I help you with that? Because I'm kind of trying to learn how everything goes. It's my first day, you know, just whatever. Help people. Do not, not help people. I know you have so many things to think about. Your nervous is heck, but please help people, especially if you're just kind of waiting to be told what to do. Help somebody. What else? That's pretty much it, you guys. The assistant should hopefully show you guys how to run the lines at the end of the day. And in between each patient, they should be showing you what to put in the ultrasonic, how to wrap everything, who's in charge of putting the instruments through. If it's always you're putting them through or if there's somebody else in the sterilization area doing that. So you should be shown all of that. I probably left something else. So if you guys have questions, please let me know. Feel free to comment in the boxes below and I'd be more than happy to help you and make sure to hit subscribe because I do upload videos often and let me know. If there's a video you want to see because it helps me to know what you guys are thinking, right? So good luck at being a dental assistant. This is so exciting. I still remember my first day. So exciting. But let me know if I left anything else. Okay. Thank you guys for watching and I'll see you on the next one.