Careers

Career Description

The Air Force has over 300,000 Airmen, along with their families, posted around the world, and they all receive top-notch dental care free of charge. While Air Force dentists lead care facilities, Dental Assistants are right there with them, assisting in everything from simple exams to oral surgery. The health of the Air Force family is one of our top priorities, and this is one way you can work to ensure it's the best it can be.

Career Tasks

• Assist Air Force dentists in the treatment of patients
• Select instruments, mix dental filling materials for restoring defective teeth and clean and sterilize instruments
• Assist in specialty areas such as oral surgery, periodontics (treatment of gum disease), prosthodontics (replacement of missing teeth) and endodontics (root canal treatment)
• Take, develop and mount dental x rays
• Serve as a dental hygienist, cleaning and polishing teeth and instructing patients on proper brushing and flossing techniques, as well as diet and nutrition

Relevant Interests & Skills

• Health and Medicine
• Science
• Business Operations

Training

After eight-and-a-half weeks of Basic Military Training, every Airman goes to technical training to learn their career. Here's the basic information about Dental Assistant technical training:

School location: Ft. Sam Houston [TX]

Length of course: 48 days

College degree earned: Dental Assisting

College credits earned: 17