10 Dentistry Skills Needed For The Job

July 29, 2020, academicbrits

Ever wondered how you can become a dentist?
The truth is, dental hygiene professionals need an arsenal of skills, in order to succeed in the profession. From communication to technical, you have to exhibit such skills.
Here are ten skills you’ll need to do well as a dental hygienist.

1. Strong Attention To Detail

“Being detail-oriented is an essential skill that all dentists should have,” says Hayden Whinham, a health writer at Australia 2 write and Writemyx. “When looking at a patient’s teeth, you have to look for the small details from the teeth and gums. It’s not worth missing a detail, or else you’ll deprive the patient of the treatment that they need, or even do more harm to them than good.”

2. Good Communication

You need good communication, in order to effectively speak with patients, patients’ family members, and your colleagues. It’s important to practice communication skills that both verbal and non-verbal (ex. a patient’s non-verbal expressions, when having dental procedures done to them). And, you may want to learn an additional language or two, so that there’s no language barrier, when working with an individual that may not speak the same language as you.

3. Be Able To Solve Problems

In the field of dentistry, you have to solve a multitude of problems, especially when dealing with many patients. In fact, you’ll encounter unique challenges with each patient that you work with, and you’ll need to be a good problem solver to handle said challenges.

4. Demonstrate Leadership

Should you choose to manage a dental practice, you have to exhibit exceptional leadership skills. Dentists often manage other employees during procedures and client management. Being able to lead your practice is important, so that your employees can feel confident and complete the tasks at hand. And, as always, a good leader has to listen to his or her team members for feedback.

5. Manual Dexterity

Having a steady hand is an important trait to have in dentistry, so that you can operate in a safe and productive manner. Dentistry involves handling specified dental tools (a lot of these are sharp and weirdly-shaped) and close proximity to the patient; therefore, it’s important to practice excellent manual dexterity.

6. Strong Interpersonal Skills

In hindsight, patients will go to you to get healthier teeth, and they’ll trust you every step of the way. With that said, you should never treat your patients like a commodity or case study.
Having strong interpersonal skills is good to have, so that the relationships between you and your patients can go beyond the dentist’s chair, and be long-term.

7. Strong Research Skills

Now, dentistry is more than just oral hygiene. Therefore, you’ll have to do plenty of research, to stay on top of the profession. Diligence in research is a good trait to have as a dentist, especially when researching with other colleagues to stay up to date with new technology and practices.

8. Loves To Learn

As you do your research, and build long-lasting relationships with your patients, it’s important to know that you can never stop learning, especially in dentistry. As mentioned before, you should demonstrate an ability to do research on the fly. Therefore, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a love for learning.

9. Exhibit Compassion

While 75% of patients experience some form of anxiety when visiting the dentist’s office, 10 to 15% of patients have a significant fear of it. As many as 75 percent of people are at least a little scared of going to the dentist. With that said, you might see patients crying in the dental chair.
Therefore, you have to be considerate with said patients. Having compassion for others is a valuable trait in dentistry, since it allows you to comfort them, and take care of them to the best of your ability.

10. Exceptional Business Skills

“Although these skills aren’t absolutely necessary in the dental field, business skills are still desired, if you choose to open your own practice,” says Lilly Murray, a business writer at Brit student and Next coursework. “For that, you should be prepared to know how to set up appointments, collect payments, send patients their billing statements, etc.”

Conclusion

In truth, dental health is related to people’s overall health, since it has to do with procedures and hygiene. And, it’s important to continue this essential field in the medical industry.
And the good news is, being a successful dentist is possible, especially for anyone who possesses these useful skills.

Michael Dehoyos writes and edits at PhD Kingdom and Write my coursework. He also contributes to numerous publications like Assignment help. As a content marketer, he helps companies improve and adapt marketing strategies.

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