Photo By Douglas Stutz | By Douglas H Stutz, NHB/NMRTC Bremerton public affairs officer – When it comes to...... read more read more
When it comes to putting the bite in the fight at Naval Hospital Bremerton, there’s a dental assistant helping every Navy Dental Corps officer do just that.
That specialized support is tailored to assist dentists in diagnosing, treating, and caring for patient’s oral health and is being acknowledged with Dental Assistants Recognition Week, March 2-8, 2024.
Prime duties for dental assistants include providing guidance to patients on the prevention of cavities as well as being able to offer explanations on the benefits of regular brushing and flossing, both necessary for overall dental health and wellness.
The workload for calendar year included handling more than 27,000 dental patient appointments.
Yet perhaps no role is more crucial for a dental assistant that their direct impact in helping sustain the operational readiness of deployable units. Dental assistants help with dental readiness by taking yearly radiographs on all patients and assisting the dental docs with dental exams with documenting treatment needs and annotating active-duty patients’ dental readiness classification,” They also take the lead in compiling the readiness reports and timely informing patients to schedule an annual dental exam.”
The Navy’s dental readiness classifications for all patients provides a timely indicator of every command’s operational readiness. It’s designed to assess Navy commands to predict – and prevent if needed – dental emergencies from being a root cause of a problem impacting that readiness.
There are four classifications; Class I patients are good to go with no dental treatment expected in a year. Class II, a patient may just need minor or elective treatment such as a dental cleaning or a small filling. Class III indicates that urgent or emergency treatment is required, usually due to an active dental disease. The decayed part of the tooth must be removed and filled, or it could get much worse within a year. Class IV refers to any patient who hasn’t had a dental exam within the year and/or their dental classification is unknown.
There are many Navy dentists who have specialized clinical expertise in a host of field besides endodontics and oral and maxillofacial surgery such as prosthodontics, orthodontics, and periodontics. It’s the dental assistant’s job to be prepared to help with those dental disciplines.
The full scope of dental services provided by the department – and clinics at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor and Naval Station Everett - include general and comprehensive dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral maxillofacial radiology, endodontics, prosthodontics, digital dentistry, and dental hygiene.
There are 14 active-duty dentists, two civil service dentists, and nine contracted dental hygienists providing the needed care and service to over 12,100 active-duty beneficiaries. The command also provides treatment facility support and dental services to multiple additional platforms during their Selected Restricted Availability periods at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
The dental team has also recently been able to leverage updated advancements in virtual surgical planning and 3D printing to perform full mouth rehabilitation. That development has reduced the number of surgeries required for each case from multiple appointments down to just one, increased surgical predictability, and minimized Sailors’ time away from their deploying operational platforms.
That’s a mouthful for every patient supported by a dental assistant.
| Date Taken: | 03.06.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.06.2025 18:15 |
| Story ID: | 492211 |
| Location: | BREMERTON , WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 94 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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