My husband is a dentist, so I have had a chance to observe that arena a bit through the years. I would suggest you first look at the available dental assistant chairs. There are some whose support goes across the front rather than the back: they allow the assistant to get closer to the work site, without nearly so much "reach" and give extra support.
It may, truthfully, be more practical to ease her towards non-chairside positions in dental office. Larger dental offices often have full-time insurance coordinators or billing people, where knowledge of dental anatomy and terminology can be a big marketing plus in getting her hired. Also, dental insurance companies often hire people with some dental background to assist in processing claims. Some non-dental but regular health insurance companies may have a dental claims department, where again her combination of dental plus mail processing/information skills might be hiring advantages for her.
As to typing, I don't know if her shoulder interferes with her typing. If so, there are two modifications you might explore. The first is Dragon Medical Software Dictation (subset of the Dragon voice dictation system, geared to medical terms) or an alternative split keyboard, the Comfort Keyboard, which keeps the traditional keyboard but is much more sparing to the upper extremity. I have used it multiple times, and it has never failed me (esp. for Carpal Tunnel problems). Hope this is of some help to you, Pat Eby
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Patricia Eby, CRC, CDMS
Voc Counselor/Nurse Case Mgr.
pat_eby@juno.com Roanoke, VA United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-02-2014 00:54
From: Teresa McClain
Subject: Dental assistant work with adapatations
Hello,
I am working with a person who has been a Dental Assistant in the past, but she later went to work for the Post Office and, then, injured her dominant shoulder. Have any other persons had luck with a person going back to dental assisting work and how about adaptations for dental assisting work. Any suggestions, fo this? Thank you very much. She does have difficulty with moving that shoulder very much, in terms of reaching> this may not be a realistic goal for her , but she liked that work and is interested in the work.
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Teresa McClain
Consultant
tmcclain4@gmail.com
Dubuque, IA United States
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