Continuing Education is Critical to Maintaining Dental Assistants’ Skills
Successful people (including dental assistants) share a thirst for knowledge, and the way to quench your thirst is by taking continuing education (CE) courses. According to the Dale Foundation research, CE helps both the assistant and the entire practice thrive. Also, it’s found that 87% of dental professionals agreed that RDAs who take on CE contribute to the practice and its profitability. Here is why CE is critical for dental assistants, their skills, and career development.
- Maintaining Engagement
Continuing education keeps dental assistants interested in their jobs. Learning new things is what brings new passion and excitement to their role. It is invigorating, which is why learning is a process that never stops.
- Sense of Value
Feeling valued is another essential factor that drives us to hone our skills. Through education, dental assistants get a sense of value – there wouldn’t be any point in attending a course if you weren’t worth it, right? The more you learn, the more confident you will feel, and you will be able to take on more responsibility. This has a critical effect on the place you work as well as on you personally.
- Hands-On Training
When learning new things, dental assistants need to have hands-on experience. Imagine a dental assistant doing work that he learned online. They need real-life situations and to be supervised. With continuing education, dental assistants can earn various certificates, but more importantly, they’ll be able to practice their skills and receive feedback from their mentors.
- Growing Career
The CE that dental assistants seek out will provide opportunities for them to learn new skills. That also means they will be able to go further with their careers. Experienced and educated dental assistants can grow into new roles and take on additional responsibilities by demonstrating their skills in the office.
- Staying on Track with New Things
We keep seeing new developments in the dental field, and CE is the best way to keep up with all of them. Dental assistants will be learning new skills to be able to provide the best possible treatment to their patients. For example, by staying on track with the latest techniques, dental assistants will minimize issues such as patient discomfort.
- CE Teaches the Value of Being a Part of a Team
Sharing new perspectives and ideas with others is what boosts motivation and keeps one going forward. In turn, that will help with improving patient care. Some courses in CE are specifically designed to help RDAs focus on the benefits of team building, including learning about the impact of trusting your colleagues.
Learning and maintaining skills helps dental assistants grow in confidence as professionals. Knowledge is a powerful tool, and understanding that is a key benefit of CE for dental assistants. Furthermore, if you qualified as a dental assistant in the 1980s, many of the techniques used today weren’t even around. To provide your patients with the best possible care, you must have the same up-to-date knowledge as a dental assistant who qualified a few months ago.
Dental Specialties Institute, Inc is a well-known provider of continuing education for dental assistants in California. Founded in 2000, we are an experienced and dedicated team of instructors and professionals that help dental assistants meet education requirements in different fields. For more information, feel free to contact us.