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This group performs some or all of the following duties:

• Prepare patients for dental examination and assist the dentist during examinations and dental treatments
• Sterilize and maintain instruments and equipment
• Prepare dental instruments and filling materials
• Take and develop X-rays
• Polish teeth and clinical crowns and apply fluoride and sealant
• Take preliminary impressions for diagnostic casts
• Fabricate and place temporary crowns and restorations
• Educate patients concerning oral hygiene
• Invoice patients for dental services
• Schedule patient appointments and record dental procedures performed
• Order dental and office supplies
• May perform intra-oral duties such as remove sutures, take and record vital signs, apply desensitizing agents, topical anaesthetic, anticariogenic agents, coronal whitening and apply and remove rubber dams.

• Completion of an eight-month to one-year college or other program in dental assistance or completion of secondary school with on-the-job training is required.
• Registration with a regulatory body is required in all provinces except Quebec and Ontario.
• Certification by the National Dental Assisting Examination Board is required to perform intra-oral duties in all provinces except in Quebec, where intra-oral duties are not performed by dental assistants.

• In some provinces there are two levels of dental assistants: Level I - chair-side assistant and Level II - intra-oral assistant. Progression from Level I to Level II is possible with education, training and licensure.

• Dental hygienists and dental therapists (3222)
• Dental technologists, technicians and laboratory assistants (3223)