Having a skilled, properly trained dental assistant can help dentists maximize the number of procedures they perform which can positively affect revenue. One skill that dental assistants can acquire that helps facilitate a smooth operatory workflow is their ability to take dental radiographs. With a radiography-certified dental assistant, either the doctor must take time to expose the X-ray, or a hygienist must interrupt her procedure to perform the task.
Either way, the time of a more highly revenue-producing practice member is being spent on a task that a dental assistant should be able to perform. Time is money in dentistry as in most other fields.
Florida law requires that dental assistants receive proper training and obtain state certification before performing dental radiography. Until recently, obtaining that training required that dental assistants wait for new training sessions to begin at a specialized training facility. This resulted in delays, time away from work and, perhaps, time away from home.
The Florida Dental Association (FDA) has solved that problem for dentists. Now, licensed dentists in good standing can enroll their assistants in MyDentalRadiography.com. This online instruction allows employees to obtain training to become radiography-certified — at their convenience, from their home or your office, without putting their life or work on hold.
MyDentalRadiography.com consists of a nine-module training program that prepares students to successfully expose a full-mouth series of radiographs and bitewings.
Each training module includes a quiz to ensure the most critical educational points have been understood and retained. The course concludes with a test of all material covered, which students must pass with a score of 80% or higher.
There are unlimited attempts to pass the course, and the training materials can be revisited until students pass the test. Training concludes with a dentist-supervised, hands-on demonstration that shows students can properly expose full-mouth and bitewing radiographs. Following the successful course completion and hands-on demonstration, the dentist signs off on the completion and students apply for certification with the state of Florida.
To get your practice started with MyDentalRadiography.com, supervising dentists must visit the site and create an account. There is a brief orientation to the program that dentists complete to receive their supervising dentist IDs. Dentists can purchase training vouchers and assign them to their dental assistants. Students receive an email from MyDentalRadiography.com that allows them to enroll and start training.
Vouchers cost $285 for FDA members and $385 for nonmembers. Costs for on-site training plus travel expenses, are considerably higher.
Your employees can start and stop the training program to accommodate their personal needs and time constraints. The program saves students’ progress so they can pick up where they left off. Employees receive reminder emails to log on and begin their training. Supervising dentists also receive emails that provide status updates about their employees’ participation, including when modules are completed, with the hands-on portion ready for scheduling. MyDentalRadiography.com provides students with a certificate of completion to submit to the state when they have successfully completed the course and hands-on segment.
To learn more about the FDA’s MyDentalRadiography.com program, click here or call 850.681.3629.
Beyond the Bite 