Bright Futures in Dentistry 

Employment of dental assistants is projected to grow 19 percent from 2016 to 2026.

North Dakota needs dental assistants.  Currently, there is a significant shortage of dental assistants in North Dakota. In 2017, 70% of North Dakota dentists tried to hire a dental assistant and 40% were unsuccessful. 

We know dental assistants are vital to a dental practice. They may take patient vitals, clean prosthesis, take impressions, apply medications, take patient history, and do impressions. To be able to take radiographs, dental assistants need to become qualified. To practice even more expanded functions dental assistants need to become registered.

The North Dakota Dental Foundation is here to help. In partnership with the North Dakota Dental Association and the North Dakota State College of Science, we created a program called Bright Futures in Dentistry.

Ultimately, we're interested in increasing the number of registered dental assistants in North Dakota.  There are two pathways to doing this by either attending a 10 month program or working for a dental practice as a chair-side trained assistant and then after 3,600 hours, passing the DANB.

Bright Futures in Dentistry takes three actions:

1. Connect dental assistants & gatekeepers with high school students
2. Recruit new dental assistants
3. Pay for chair-side trained dental assistants to become DANB certified