Dental Assisting

Information for Employers

Are you looking to hire a dental assistant or host a dental assisting student as an intern? You'll find information here to get started.

Job Listings

Foothill College does not have a job board on campus for students in our program. However, our Health Sciene and Horiculture Division hosts an electronic Job Board, which our Dental Assisting graduates can view and you may use as an employer.

Note: Our Dental Assisting Program does not operate as a placement agency for interns. To reach out to dental assistants, we recommend using this list of Employment Search resources, which includes local dental societies and placement agencies.

Internship Program

If you are interested in hosting a dental assisting intern, we have two separate internships.  One is a paid apprenticeship and the other is an unpaid internship.  

15-Month Paid Apprenticeship 

• Student is hired as paid employee of dental office while taking hybrid classes and attending on-campus labs on Saturdays 
• Starts each January 

9-Month Unpaid Internship

• Tuesdays and Thursdays from April to June each year.  

Please review guidelines below if you would like to request a Foothill College dental assisting student as an intern in your office.

• Interns should NOT be requested for temporary staff shortages.  Sometimes an office requests an intern because the assistant has left and the office is in the process of hiring another assistant.  Once the office employs an assistant, the office usually doesn't want to train two people and asks the intern to leave.  Due to scheduling and securing of intern offices, it is difficult to re-position the intern in another office given the short notice that usually occurs. 
• It is NOT appropriate to request an intern for busy offices that only need support services such as disinfection, instrument processing and sterilization only. The dentist and staff environment needs to be nurturing and patient.  The dentist and staff need to have an active interest in teaching, explaining and demonstrating during the internship.  If only the dentist wants an intern, the staff who were not asked or don't want an intern won't treat the intern in a respectful manner. 
• Students can do one to two days of observation but at least by the third day they need to start working with the dentist at chairside.  
• They can be asked to do some sterilization and assist with the administrative office, however, 80% of their time should be spent chairside assisting. 
• These are some of the areas that are important for the student to develop their skills: 
  
  • Mixing cements, impression materials, etc. 
  •  Passing instruments 
  • Charting 
  • General restorative and specialty procedures
  • x-rays
  • as many RDA duties as possible 
• When the intern first starts at chairside, generally it is best to have the RDA in the office to oversee and assist the intern during the procedure.  As the intern becomes more competent, then the intern may assist independently. 
• Note: Priority is given to dentists and their staff who serve on our Dental Programs Advisory Board and who regularly take our interns every year. 

Please download the following documents to complete your request for an intern and contact the program director, Cara Miyasaki, at miyasakicara@fhda.edu with any questions

1. 1. Dental Office Internship Information
   2. Request for an unpaid intern: General Practice    Specialty Office
      
      • • Contract Memo
        • Contract- Complete and upload into the Smartsheet
   3. Request a apprenticeship student: General Practice only
      • DAS 7 (Department of Apprenticeship Standards) form - Complete and upload into the Smartsheet 
      • Dental Office Apprenticeship Standard Form