Dental assistant’s awareness of their professional limits in orthodontic treatment

Rhonan Ferreira da SILVA, André da Costa MONINI, José VALLADARES NETO, Luiz FRANCESQUINI JÚNIOR, Eduardo DARUGE JÚNIOR

Introduction: nowadays the odontological market demands treatments with a distinguished quality and the proper use of dental assistants represents an important tool to increase productivity in dental offi ces. In order to do so, those professionals must be technically capable and involved with the job, following their tasks based on ethics and legal requirements of dental professions. Aim: to identify the assistant team technical profi le, analyzing their awareness concerning their legal prerogatives in orthodontic treatment. Methods: the present paper was developed upon a questionnaire that was answered by all dental assistants legally registered in the Goiás State Dental Board (CRO-GO) and applied in the cities of Goiânia and Aparecida de Goiânia/GO – Brazil. The research was conducted from May to June, 2003. Results and Conclusions: it was verifi ed that several procedures that were not legally defi ned as assistant team tasks were being performed by those professionals. This results shows that Dentistry´s professional laws have been either ignored or not followed.

Keywords: Dental assistants. Ethics. Forensic Dentistry. Orthodontics.

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