Expanded Duties Course
Mission
Our mission is to offer the best of ourselves for the good of our students.
The Learn to Earn Dental Staff School (LTEDSS) strives to offer a highly efficient and thorough expanded duty course that prepares students the skills necessary to perform the duties required of an expanded duty dental assisting. Our aim is to provide effective, affordable training that is educational, practical, and convenient, presented in a student directed format.
Goals
Provide a meaningful technical education for those individuals desiring an EFDA certificate in Dentistry that is both affordable in tuition and time requirements.
Provide learning techniques that combine visual, hands-on, and off-site remote learning that allows for rapid assimilation of concepts and skills.
Encourage students to accept that learning is a life-long experience of value rather than simply pleasing some authority figure.
Help students to acquire the learning skills, thru exposure to experienced instructors from other active dental practices that allow them to evaluate, and rationally choose rather than mimic.
Instill in students the fiduciary relationship that exists in the Health Care Field.
Program
The in-office program covers some basic-functions as well as clinical check-offs for expanded duties functions. The course begins with power point presentation, background information on all course content, and will end with a test on each course IV, V, VI. It is taught in a high tech dental office with the latest technology that incorporates hands-on-procedures. The students are led through all aspects of expanded duties.
Permissible Duties Outlined by the GDA’s Website
(a) Apply desensitizing agents to root surfaces of teeth and prepared dentinal surfaces of teeth prior to cementation of temporary restorations and crowns, bridges, or inlays.
(b) Place cavity liner, base or varnish over unexposed pulp.
(c) Intraoral fabrication of temporary crowns and bridges. All such adjustments must be performed extraorally.
(d) Perform face bow transfer.
(e) Make impressions to be used to repair a damaged prosthesis.
(f) Place periodontal dressing.
(g) Redressing (not initial placement of dressing) and removing dressing from alveolar sockets in post-operative osteitis when the patient is uncomfortable due to the loss of dressing from the alveolar socket in a diagnosed case of post-operative osteitis.
(h) Make impressions with irreversible hydrocolloid to be used to fabricate a night guard (bruxism or muscle relaxation appliance). All adjustments must be performed extraorally. Final adjustment must be made by the dentist.
(i) Monitor the administration of nitrous oxide/oxygen; turn off nitrous oxide/oxygen at the completion of the dental procedure and make adjustments to the level of nitrous oxide/oxygen, but only following the specific instructions of the dentist.
(j) Apply topical anticariogenic agents.
(k) Apply pit and fissure sealants, and primer and bonding agents to etched enamel or dentin; and light-cure with a fiber-optic light source (not to include the use of a laser device).
(l) Packing and removing retraction cord, as prescribed by the dentist, so long as said cord is used solely for restorative dental procedures.
(m) Changing of bleaching agent, following initial applications by the dentist, during the bleaching process of vital and non-vital teeth after the placement of a rubber dam; and applying the fiber-optic light source of a curing light for activation of the bleach (not to include the use of a laser device).
(n) Rebond brackets after a licensed dentist has examined the affected tooth and surrounding gingiva and found no evidence of pathology.
(o) Remove bonded brackets with hand instruments only.
(p) Make impressions for passive orthodontic appliances.
(q) Apply primer and bonding agents to etched enamel or dentin; and light cure with fiber-optic light source (not to include use of a laser device).
Who May apply to the EFDA Programs
150-9-.02. Expanded Duties of Dental Assistants
(1) To meet the requirements of an expanded duty dental assistant, a dental assistant must have a high school diploma, or the equivalent thereof, proof of current CPR certification and a certificate documenting that he or she has successfully completed the course pertaining to the specific duties outlined in that certificate. Only those expanded duties, which are listed on the certificate(s), may be performed by an expanded duty dental assistant. An expanded duty dental assistant certificate may be issued by an accredited dental assisting program, a dental hygiene school, a dental school or a professional association recognized and approved by the Georgia Board of Dentistry to a candidate who has successfully completed the required certificate courses (each of which must be a minimum of four hours) from an accredited dental assisting program, a dental hygiene school, a dental school or professional association recognized and approved by the Georgia Board of Dentistry and met all other requirements of an expanded duty assistant; and completed an examination demonstrating competency in specific duties that is administered by a licensed dentist on behalf of the accredited dental assistant program, dental hygiene school, dental school or professional association recognized and approved by the Georgia Board of Dentistry.
Eligibility Requirements to become a EFDA
(2) Eligibility for taking said courses requires that the candidate meet at least one of the following criteria:
(a) Possess current certification that the candidate is a Certified Dental Assistant.
(b) Be a graduate of a one (1) year accredited dental assisting program or a dental assisting program approved by the Board or be eligible for graduation.
(c) Have been employed as a chair side assistant by a licensed dentist for a continuous six (6) month period within the previous three (3) years. (Note: An expanded duties certificate would be issued to a candidate only upon proper proof of graduation.)
(3) The employer of the expanded duty assistant shall have readily available in the dental office a copy of the certificate(s) issued from the sponsor of the accredited course(s) of study to the expanded duty dental assistant. The expanded duties specific to the course(s) taken and in which [a] certificate(s) [has/have] been issued may be delegated to dental assistants, who are performing their duties under the direct supervision of a licensed dentist. The following expanded duties may be delegated to those assistants meeting the educational requirements established by Board Rule 150-9-.02(1) and possessing a certificate(s) of the course(s) taken delineating the duties specific to that course.