Description
Perform advanced chairside and intraoral duties under a dentist’s supervision. Responsibilities include preparing patients and the operatory, placing and finishing restorations, sealants, liners, and temporaries, taking impressions and radiographs, coronal polishing, maintaining infection control, assisting during procedures and emergencies, and delivering patient education and postoperative instructions. May also manage scheduling, records, billing, insurance, and supplies.
- • Prepare patients and operatory; sterilize or disinfect instruments and set up trays.
- • Expose and process digital dental radiographs.
- • Record treatment notes; take medical and dental histories and vital signs.
- • Provide oral hygiene instruction and postoperative care guidance.
- • Assist the dentist during procedures and in managing emergencies.
- • Place rubber dams, matrices, and wedges for restorative procedures.
- • Place, contour, carve, and finish amalgam or composite restorations as delegated.
- • Place liners, bases, bonding agents, and temporary fillings.
- • Fabricate, adjust, and cement provisional crowns and bridges.
- • Take preliminary impressions and digital scans; make occlusal registrations.
- • Pour, trim, and polish study casts; fabricate custom trays.
- • Perform coronal polishing and apply topical fluoride and pit-and-fissure sealants.
- • Remove sutures and excess cement; place retraction cord as delegated.
- • Schedule appointments, manage records, insurance forms, billing, and payments.
- • Order and maintain dental supplies and equipment inventory.
- • Orthodontic: place separators, assist with banding or bonding, and replace ligatures and archwires as delegated.
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Healthcare & Human Services
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O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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Last reviewed: Jan 2026
