Clarification from the agency

NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this position. For more information, refer to Required Documents below. This announcement is open Internal Employees and Past/Current/Upcoming VHA Health Professions trainees Graduates If you are a not a Current, Permanent VA employee, Current, Future or Past Health Professional Trainees or other Federal Employees, please apply to the internal announcement: CBSU-12949214-26-JMS Veterans' preference does NOT apply for this announcement

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The Dental Assistant contributes to Patient Centered Care strategies through the functions listed below. They plan, organize, and coordinate clinical services and assist the Supervisor with process improvement and quality improvement ideas.

• Customer Service:
  • Shows courtesy, respect, and a positive attitude for patients, co-workers, and the public.
  • Provides assistance to customers with questions or concerns, provides service recovery.
• Chairside Assisting.
  • Receive and prepare patient for treatment including, seating, positioning chair, placing napping,
  • performing disinfection, and sterilization procedure.
  • Perform basic chair side assisting with direct instruction from the treating dentist.
  • Passes instruments safely, accurately, and efficiently.
  • Report medical emergencies to the dentist.
  • Prepare procedural trays/armamentaria set-ups.
• Dental Imaging
  • Expose and process basic dental radiographs with direct supervision.
  • Mount and label dental radiographs and/or save digital images to the electronic medical record with direct supervision.
• Clerical Functions
  • Direct patient to appropriate staff for the intent of scheduling visits.
  • Retrieve all pertinent patient records prior to seating the dental patient.
  • Maintains patient confidentiality per HIPAA with written and verbal information.
  • Follows computer security regulations.
• Patient Safety
  • Modifies care as necessitated by patient's age and abilities (patient transfer and position).
  • Provides accurate and understandable instructions to patients.
  • Participates in patient identification and time out per JCAHO requirements.
  • Monitors patient condition during treatment, being alert for signs of physical distress.
• Employee Education
  • Complies with Employee Education requirements.
  • Completes mandatory annual safety training sessions.
• Dental Laboratory Functions
  • Pours impressions and prepares study models.
  • Fabricates final denture and fixed impression trays and prepares base plates and wax rims Boxes and pours final models for denture fabrication.
  • Prepares temporary stents, including waxing up edentulous areas requiring replacement with Bridges.
• GS - 05
  • Infection Control and Equipment Sterilization
  • Comply with standard recommendation for equipment maintenance.
  • Instruments are properly prepared for sterilization by SPD standards.
  • Instruments are prepared in a manner that does not delay clinical care.
• GS-06
  • Accomplishes all intra-operative procedures within standard infection control protocols
  • Assists in routine general dental procedures.
  • Using the concepts of four handed dentistry, assists with basic restorative procedures.
  • Assists in specialized dental procedures, such as oral surgery, endodontics, and periodontics
  • Prepares operating room for cases.
  • Assists in operating room during oral surgery.
  • Prepares room for and assists during implant surgery.
• Infection Control and Equipment Sterilization
  • Demonstrates proper infection control procedures in setting up and cleaning up operations.
  • Instruments are properly prepared for sterilization by SPD standards.
  • Instruments are prepared in a manner that does not delay clinical care.
  • Demonstrates proper infection control procedures in exposing images.
• Direct Patient Care
  • Remove sutures.
  • Takes impressions for diagnostic casts and preliminary impressions for prosthetic fabrication.
  • Removes temporary crowns/bridges and cleans tooth preparation of debris.
  • Recements and fabricates temporary crowns, prepares for final cementation of crown and bridges. by preliminarily checking occlusion and providing initial occlusal adjustment.
  • Provides coronal polishing of teeth.
  • Place rubber dams and matrix bands.
  • Provides post-operative and other appropriate patient education

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Compressed/Flexible:Available at supervisor approval
Telework: Not Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Title/Functional Statement #: 52794A, 52795A, 52796A, 52797A
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Subject to a physical
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

To qualify for this announcement, you must meet all the requirement by the closing date:

BASIC REQUIREMENTS

Citizenship. Citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to
recruit qualified candidates in accordance with chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3g, this part.)

English Language Proficiency. Dental assistants must be proficient in spoken and written English

Experience and Education

Experience. Six months experience that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work, or
provides familiarity with the work.
OR,
Education. Successful completion of a 1-year dental assistant program accredited by the American
Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA).

Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combinations of experience and education are
qualifying.

Certification. Public Law 97-35 requires that persons who administer radiologic procedures meet the
credentialing standards in 42 CFR Part 75. Essentially, they must have successfully completed an
educational program that meets or exceeds the standards described in that regulation and is accredited by an organization recognized by the Department of Education and be certified as radiographers in their field.

Provisions for Certification of Radiologic Competence
Successful completion of the Dental Radiation Health and Safety Examination administered by the
Dental Assisting National Board, Inc.
OR,
Successful completion of the Principles and Practice of Dental Radiology and Radiographic Safety
courses and examinations developed by the Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Dentistry.
OR,
Successful completion of a radiation health and safety program or examination approved by a state
board of dentistry or the Department of Defense (DoD).

Non-certified applicants who otherwise meet the eligibility requirements for certification of
radiologic competence may be given a temporary appointment as a graduate dental assistant under the
authority of 38 U.S.C. § 7405 (a) (1) (D). Failure to obtain certification during that period is justification
for termination of the temporary appointment. This [will result in removal from the GS-681 series and] may result in termination of employment.

Certification in basic life support methods is highly desirable.

Certification by the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB). The American Dental
Association (ADA) recognizes DANB as the national certification for Dental Assistants. DANB certification is not required, but highly desirable for the appointment of Dental Assistants up to and including the full performance level and is required for all positions above the full performance level.

GRADE REQUIREMENTS
Grade Determinations. In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria
must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

GS-3
Experience or Education. None beyond the basic requirements.

GS-4
Experience or Education. In addition to the basic requirements, 1 year of experience at the
next lower level, OR 2 years of education above high school that included completion of a dental
assistant program accredited by the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental
Accreditation (CODA).

In addition, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:
a. Basic knowledge of infection control and safe instrument handling.
b. Basic knowledge of dental procedures and [medical emergencies.
c. Ability to perform basic radiographic image capture and processing/retrieval.
d. Basic knowledge of maintenance, care and storage of dental equipment.
e. Basic knowledge of patient privacy requirements.

GS-5
Experience or Education
In addition to the requirements listed at GS-4 above, applicants must demonstrate at least 1 year of
experience [equivalent to at the next lower grade level that demonstrates the core competencies described at that level.
OR,
Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study that included or was supplemented by
completion of a dental assistant program by CODA.
In addition to meeting the areas above, the applicant must demonstrate the following
KSA's:
a. Knowledge of anatomy and [ability to evaluate diagnostic quality.
b. Broad knowledge of common medical emergencies and vital signs measurement.
c. Basic knowledge of instruments, materials and standardized dental procedures.
d. Ability to learn and utilize software programs used within VHA.
e. Basic communication skills to provide patient instructions according to established protocol

GS-6 Staff Dental Assistant (Full Performance Level)
Experience. At least 1 year of experience [equivalent to] the next lower grade level that
demonstrates the core competencies described at that level.

In addition, the candidate must demonstrate the following technical KSAs:
a. Ability to identify normal oral anatomy.
b. Advanced knowledge of instruments, materials, and standardized dental procedures used in all
phases of restorative, surgical, endodontic and periodontal care and procedures.
c. Ability to monitor and perform basic interpretation of vital signs.
d. Ability to independently provide procedure-specific patient education and appropriate referral of
patient concerns to treating dentist.
e. Ability to capture standard and special dental images of good diagnostic quality in traditional or digital formats.
f. Ability to perform maintenance on dental equipment used for routine and specialty dentistry.
g. Ability to enter and retrieve data utilizing electronic dental records.
h. Ability to perform dental assistant-appropriate laboratory procedures.

Preferred Experience: Dental assisting experience
The full performance level of this announcement is a GS-06.

Physical Requirement: Able to meet the physical demands for the position, reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. Must have a good manual dexterity. Must be able to express or exchange ideas by means of spoken or written word. Must be able to view and read information on computer screens.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Area of Consideration - Eligible applications will be reviewed and referred in the following order:

1. Current Permanent VA employees of the facility.
2. All other VA employees.
3. Current Permanent federal employees of other agencies.
4. All other applicants.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your application, resume, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.