Week One

Hello and welcome to the Colorado School of Dental Assisting Facebook page! This blog is for everyone–new students, current students, former students, instructors, faculty, and anyone that may just be thinking of joining. Any and all feedback is welcome, including advice, ideas, job possibilities, homework help, and comments. Let’s get some basics started and review what has transpired in this last week at CSDA.
The dental assistant field must be booming and in great need, because CSDA has full classes running on both Saturday/Thursday and Sunday/Tuesday. Students donned their scrubs and comfortable shoes, with paper and pencils in hand, and were welcomed with smiles and donuts. Introductions were made around the room and, no doubt, many similarities linked each to another in some way. This is an accelerated course and there was anxious anticipation in the room to get started, so off we go!
We began with learning our dentistry forefathers (and mothers), touching on ethics, covering the members of our dental health team, and identifying our dental specialties. This was a great way to warm us up and to get comfortable with our instructors’ teaching styles. Then we go directly to the core reason why we enrolled... the tooth! Wow, who knew there was so much to learn about that little piece of bone? We have a new language to learn now, like periodontal ligament and interproximal, but that was to be expected. It will be exciting to know what your dentist is talking about when he tells his assistant that you have DL decay or an abcess that needs RCT and FGC (although, we certainly don’t want to hear that!). Admit it, everyone wants to be apart of a special club that has its own language.
When we returned on our second day, we learned about charting. The instructors have assured us that we will be charting in our sleep by the time they are done with us, but this is a good thing concerning our future in this field. We now know how many teeth are in our mouth, the names of our teeth, we understand distal, lingual, buccal, mesial, posterior and anterior, and abbreviations for all this and more. Soon, we will be asking family members to lean back in the recliner and say "aaaahh!" just so that we can show off our impressive knowledge and terminology.
There will be a test at the beginning of your next class on what we’ve learned, so study and review your little heart out, call your fellow students, your instructors, or Ben Krentz if you need any help. Everyone wants you to succeed, including yourself, so speak up with any questions you may have. This is going to be a wonderful step for your life, with so much potential to grow within the field of dentistry. Keep focused and have fun!
Carla Jordan / May / S. Den.