​Faculty Transcript

 

​Carrie Ann Johnson: Hi, my name is Carrie Ann Johnson. I have been with Linn-Benton Community College for seven years with the Dental Assistant program as a full-time faculty member.

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Stacy Gerger: Hi, I’m Stacy Gerger. I’m an instructional assistant and part-time faculty up in the Dental Assistant department. I actually am a graduate from this program; I graduated in 1999.

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CAJ: And I’ve been a dental assistant for eighteen years and absolutely love it. I love our program that we have here. We have a great program that’s been in existence for over eighteen years.

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SG: One of the things that I really like about the program is the close-knit group that we become. Not only are you close here with your instructors, you also end up being close with the doctors and the other dental assistants out in the community.

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CAJ: We really have some great dentists in this community that have been working with our program for many years. And these same dentists also volunteer in our clinic. We have a working clinic with patients, and students get hands-on experience with these patients starting fall term, as soon as they start into the program.

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SG: The Dental Assistant program here at LB is ranked number one in the United States. We take pride in having those standards.

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CAJ: We have graduates that get jobs as soon as they graduate and sometimes before they actually graduate, during their practicums over the summer. Your last term, which is summer term, before you graduate, is working in a dental office: four weeks at one office and four weeks at a second office. You get to work chairside at least 300 hours, and working with patients doing everything that you will do as soon as you graduate.

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SG: I hope that you’re thinking about pursuing dental assisting. I personally believe that it is an excellent career.

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CAJ: Dental assisting is a great field to go into if you are self-motivated, self-directed, like science—it’s a very science-based program. You never get bored; it’s always changing and exciting, and it always keeps you on your toes. Healthcare is always growing and there will be jobs all the time, no matter where you live. A lot of times also you can do part-time dental assisting if you have a family or need to take time off, that sort of thing. So it’s a very secure field to get into, and something that can be very beneficial over time. I love being a dental assistant; I love chairside assisting; and I love teaching.

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SG: I absolutely love dental assisting, I think it’s a great career to pursue. And I love educating and teaching people what I know for a job that I love so much.