Dental Assistant

The objective is to provide students with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary for successful employment as entry-level, chairside or front office Dental Assistants. The program helps students acquire appropriate skills quickly and thoroughly. In each successive course, students learn applicable dental terminology and build on the chairside assisting skills, such as charting, instrument identification, making study casts, and taking dental x-rays, which were acquired in previous courses. These clinical studies continue throughout the program, as does the discussion of professional development and expanded duty skills. A diploma will be issued upon successful completion of the program.

CPR Certification

To be eligible for American Heart Association (AHA) certification, students must attend all scheduled hours of CPR lecture and pass practical checkoffs and a written exam. A student who is tardy or misses a lecture must repeat the lecture, even if the student passes the checkoffs and written exam. If CPR is offered during another shift in the same term, the student may attend that lecture. If not offered during that term, the student will receive an incomplete for the course until the lecture is repeated. AHA requires that students pass the CPR written test with a grade of at least 84 percent. If below 84 percent, they may retake the exam once. The original test score will be used to calculate the course grade. If the test is retaken and failed a second time, the student must repeat the entire course of CPR instruction. If a student is absent for the entire course, it is his or her responsibility to contact the instructor to find an appropriate session or class to attend. If the student does not do so, he or she may not graduate.

Effective September 1, 2006, to apply to become a Registered Dental Assistant, a student must complete a mandatory short course approved by the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners (TSBDE). An approved provider list can be found on the TSBDE website:www.tsbde.state.tx.us. By law, a Dental Assistant must be registered with TSBDE in order to take x-rays at a dentist’s office.

Registration and certification requirements for taking and passing this examination are not controlled by Concorde, but by outside agencies, and are subject to change by the agency without notice. Therefore, Concorde cannot guarantee that graduates will be eligible to take this exam, at all or at any specific time, regardless of their eligibility status upon enrollment.