About Dental Assisting

Thinking about becoming an allied health professional in 10 months? Try dental assisting!

Dental Assisting program at CCSF includes instruction in intra-oral dental functions and direct patient care/chair-side experience in dental schools, clinics and private offices and public dental care facilities in 草莓社区 and the Daly City/South 草莓社区 area. Students who have completed their training satisfactorily are qualified to take the state licensure examination to become Registered Dental Assistants and the national examination to become Certified Dental Assistants.

The trained dental assistant is expected to develop skills to assist the dentist with treatment procedures at chairside; produce diagnostic aids for interpretation by the dentist; provide oral health instructions for child, teenage, and adult patients; perform chairside support and laboratory procedures that are required for dental treatments; and perform treatment services where state legal provisions authorize the dentist to assign such tasks. Dental assistants are also expected to develop skills in basic business office procedures.

If you are thinking about a career in the health field, and you are comfortable working directly with people, consider dental assisting.

Explore Potential Careers

Training in the curriculum in Dental Assisting is designed to prepare students for employment as Registered and Certified Dental Assistants in private practice, specialty dentistry, hospitals, clinics and dental schools. Positions to which graduates may advance with experience and further training include those of:

  • Dental product sales representative
  • Insurance auditor
  • Manager
  • Supervisor
  • Educator
  • RDAEF

Program Options 

Click on the degree or certificate you're interested in earning to see a sample map of courses to take to complete your goal from start to finish. 

Please note that the course maps provided are just an example to help you get started. Please meet with a counselor to personalize the plan for you and your Academic goals. 

We encourage students to consider their financial and family/life obligations when choosing a pathway to ensure successful completion of the program. During the final semester, students will be in internships on days they are not in class so it would be difficult to work during the week. There are also select Saturdays for clinical exams during the final semester.