Dental Assisting

I started going to school for dental assisting in September of 2010. I finished all of the bookwork and in class training in about a year. I was pretty proud of myself because it was a self paced program and I passed a lot of people who went to class for 6 hours a day 5 days a week. I only went to class 18 hours a week because of work. When I finished the class work I had to do 300 hours of externship work at a dental office. This is where most of my frustration with the program began. I had a minor frustration before this because only one instructor knew how to teach a portion of the class and when I got to that section she was out of town for almost two week which would have been fine but I was trying to get done before Weber started so I didn't have to go to school at two places at once. I didn't really have anything to do during the time that she was gone so I basically paid to go sit at school when I could have been sleeping and anyone who knows me knows that I love to sleep. About this same time the instructor came to me and told me that it would be extremely hard for them to find an office for me to work at because of my limited availability. She also talked to me like I was an idiot which was super frustrating. I understand that she has to deal with high school students that don't actually want to be a dental assistant and just want to get out of school but I am not one of them. I have a crazy schedule because I have to pay my tuition. If I could just go to school without working I would definitely do that but since I'm an adult with bills to pay that isn't really an option for me. Plus I already understood this and would have been fine with her telling me but she made it seem like she had told me this multiple times already but this was the first time that she had mentioned it to me. I tried to be as accommodating as possible and told her I would be willing to drive as far as Bountiful to work if they could find me somewhere. When I finished the class work they informed me that they had found me an office to work at but I would need to wait about three weeks for another student to finish because they didn't want two students working at the same time. I was totally fine with this because I was going to school at Weber so it would be nice to have a day off during the week to study. Three weeks came and went and I didn't hear from the school about starting my externship. I decided to give them a little more time because maybe the other person that was working at the office needed a little bit extra time to finish their hours. I got busy with school at Weber and I finally called them after six months of not hearing about my externship and they basically said oh sorry we can't find you a place to work but if you're more than welcome to call offices to see if you can line something up. Lucky for me I have an amazing sister who was willing to call dental offices to find me a place. The first place that she found was an orthodontic office and I was super excited because I love the idea of helping people to have a perfect smile. When I called the school to let them know I had found someplace they informed me that I couldn't do all 300 hours at a specialty office so I was only able to do 50 hours and then we had to hunt for another office. My mom's cousin works at a dental office and told Robyn to call her and she would talk to the dentist and see if I could come work there. Luck was on our side again and they agreed to let me work there. I loved the office and everyone was so nice and patient and willing to let me work on patients so that I could gain experience. Overall I am happy that I did the dental assisting program and I think that it will definitely help me when I get into the dental hygiene program at Weber.