DENTAL ASSISTING THROUGH HOME STUDY

Dental offices may hire an untrained individual as a chairside assistant; these staff members may be referred to as a "dental aide". An untrained person or dental aide of this circumstance may only suction and retract. The dental aide may not expose radiographs or provide any additional intra oral services beyond suctioning and retraction.

While employed in a dental office, the dental aide may wish to attain the status of "dental assistant". There are at least two recognized "independent study" programs in Canada today, namely the NAIT Independent Study Program and VCC Dental Assisting Distance Education Program. These home study programs provide education in basic chairside assisting. Once the basic course is completed, the dental aide must take intra oral training. Saskatchewan applicants are advised to take the intra oral training at an accredited program such as SIAST (Regina), NAIT (Edmonton) or SAIT (Calgary). Once the intra oral training is underway the aide may qualify for a temporary licence with the SDAA while completing training. Once the "core" intra oral training is completed the candidate must write the National Board Examination offered by the National Dental Assisting Examining Board. Once the NDAEB certificate is acquired the aide may be registered and licenced as a dental assistant in Saskatchewan.

link to:
NAIT Course Information