Role Definition Is a Key: How To Establish Proper Dentist–Assistant Cooperation

Collaboration between dental team members is crucial to effective treatment and high-quality patient care. This collaboration, in turn, is provided only by successful communication – but what does it mean in practice?

A group of Saudi researchers from Riyadh healthcare facilities tried to answer this question in a recent paper. This systematic review highlights the importance of clear role definition in the dental team and strictly divides the responsibilities of dentists and assistants during the treatment process.

This systematization and mutual respect for professional responsibilities can significantly enhance the work process in your clinic.

Assistant role

In the modern world, their importance and areas of responsibility are constantly growing due to the emergence of novel technological tools, including administrative and management software, billing systems, imaging software, etc. Most of these tools are used in the everyday practice of assistants. Their roles during the dental visit are:

1. Supporting treatment procedures involves delivering needed tools to the doctor and ensuring patient comfort.
2. Managing tools and equipment before, after, and during the operation, including tool preparation, cleaning, and disinfecting.
3. X-ray procedures and relevant devices preparation for successful diagnostic.
4. Administrative activities, including managing patient records, appointment scheduling, and coordination, etc.
5. Improving the patient experience means that assistants should ensure patient comfort, control their anxiety level, and, when necessary, calm them down.

Dentist role

While the assistants have a larger number of different tasks, dentists are working in the most sensitive area – dental procedures and operations, meaning that the clinician is directly responsible for the patient's health and well-being. Dentists' roles include:

1. Diagnosis and treatment planning are the key parts of treatment, which involve careful examination and analysis of the patient's oral health condition and well-being. 
2. Performing dental procedures – fillings, root canal treatment, extractions, etc.
3. Patient health education – dentists must explain the treatment process to the patient and post-treatment recommendations.
4. Continuous follow-up – clinicians must ensure that patients do well after the treatment and during subsequent visits.
5. Managing complex cases that involve treating chronic conditions and severe emergencies.

Let's sum up

The study defines a different gradient of dentists' and assistants' responsibilities. The latter clearly has a shift to administrative work that involves many organizational and preparational tasks. These research suggestions are correlated with the results of another paper by Wisconsin researchers, who analyzed electronic medical record system usage in dental clinics:

• Dentists spend about 6:20 minutes per visit in the EMR interface.
• Assistants – 10:57 min.

There are no surprises – considering the mentioned assistant roles, EMR systems are indispensable.

These tools (such as the web-based app we developed in Remedico) have a simple and intuitive environment for scheduling appointments, communicating, and accessing patients' histories and documents with just a few clicks, significantly improving the dental assistant's workflow.

However, despite these slight differences, the main factor of high-quality dental care – is a successful collaboration between these team members, which they may achieve by strict division of responsibilities.

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