Dental Assisting - Certificate
This certificate program offers a challenging career in the rapidly growing field of dental assisting. In addition to assisting dentists in all phases of dental treatment, dental assistants are valuable members of the dental team with skills in office management, clinical assisting, laboratory procedures, dental radiography, and infection control.
Infection Control is based on the concept of Standard Precautions. Standard Precautions refers to an approach to infection control that assumes all human blood and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM's) of all patients are potentially infected with HIV, HBV, HCV or other bloodborne pathogens. Standard Precautions are intended to prevent health care workers from parenteral, mucous membrane and non-intact skin exposure to bloodborne pathogens while carrying out the tasks associated with the dental assisting occupation.
The Front Range Dental Clinic, staffed by licensed dentists, provides a portion of the clinical experience, as well as an internship feature of the program. Each student must take three sequential clinical courses, without a semester break between the experiences. If for some reason the student must miss a semester of clinicals, the student will need to repeat the prior clinical experiences. These clinical hours exceed the required the 300 clock hours of the American Dental Association.
In order to graduate, a grade of "C" or better is required to all courses to receive a certificate. Completion of radiology courses qualifies students to take radiographs in the State of Colorado.
Students must submit to a criminal background check and drug screening prior to entering their Clinical Internship I. Students are responsible for the cost of these tests.
The Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association accredits the program, a special accrediting body recognized by the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation and by the U.S. Department of Education. Graduates are eligible for the Dental Assisting National Board Examination. Students must have a high school diploma or GED.
Requirements
Assessment testing is required for all students. Students who are reading at college-level and place into CCR 093 or above and MAT 050 or above may begin this program of study. Students scoring below this level should consult with a Faculty Member before registering for courses in this program of study.
Required Courses
| DEA102 | Principles of Clinical Practice | 3 |
| DEA104 | Specialties in Dentistry | 2 |
| DEA111 | Dental Office Management | 2 |
| DEA120 | Introduction to Dental Practices | 1 |
| DEA121 | Dental Science I | 3 |
| DEA122 | Dental Science II | 3 |
| DEA123 | Dental Materials I | 3 |
| DEA124 | Dental Materials II | 3 |
| DEA125 | Dental Radiography | 3 |
| DEA126 | Infection Control | 3 |
| DEA131 | Dental Radiography II | 3 |
| DEA132 | Medical Emergencies in the Dental office | 2 |
| DEA134 | Prevention and Nutrition in Dentistry | 3 |
| DEA181 | Clinical Internship I | 1 |
| DEA182 | Clinical Internship II and Seminar | 6 |
| DEA183 | Clinical Internship III | 2 |
General Studies Elective
Select one course (3 credits) from the Approved Electives List.
Total Credit Hours: 46
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