Dental Assistants

Perform limited clinical duties under the direction of a dentist. Clinical duties may include equipment preparation and sterilization, preparing patients for treatment, assisting the dentist during treatment, and providing patients with instructions for oral healthcare procedures. May perform administrative duties such as scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, billing, and coding information for insurance purposes.

The occupation of "Dental Assistants" has an estimated automation risk of 35.5%, which closely aligns with the base risk score of 35.9%. This moderate risk indicates that while some aspects of the job may be susceptible to automation, a significant portion of the work currently requires human oversight and dexterity. Dental assistants handle a variety of routine yet critical clinical and administrative duties. The tasks most likely to be automated include preparing patients, sterilizing or disinfecting instruments, setting up trays, preparing materials, and directly assisting the dentist during procedures. Additionally, the roles of recording treatment information in patient records and assisting in the management of dental or medical emergencies could be streamlined with advancing technologies. However, several core responsibilities of dental assistants remain resistant to automation due to the need for manual precision and adaptive problem-solving. For example, fabricating and fitting orthodontic appliances—such as retainers, wires, or bands—require both technical skill and customization for individual patient needs, challenging for current AI and robotics technologies. Similarly, the processes of cleaning teeth using dental instruments and cleaning or polishing removable appliances involve hands-on interaction and dexterous control that are not easily replicated by machines. These resistant tasks underscore the indispensable human element in dentistry, which is crucial for patient comfort, safety, and care quality. Key bottleneck skills that limit further automation include low levels of originality, rated at 2.6% and 2.5%. While these values are relatively low—implying limited requirements for imagination or creative problem-solving—the need for adaptability in fabrication and patient-specific care helps preserve job security for dental assistants. Successful practitioners must still demonstrate a degree of flexibility and on-the-spot judgment, particularly when handling emergencies or tailoring orthodontic appliances. This blend of routine tasks (potentially automatable) and specialized hands-on duties (resistant to automation) contributes to the overall risk assessment, resulting in a middle-range automation risk rather than higher vulnerability seen in more repetitive or purely data-driven occupations.