Clinical Expanded Function Dental Assistant - Community Care

The West Palm Beach VA Healthcare System is in Palm Beach County, Florida, and its six outpatient clinics are in Stuart, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Okeechobee, Vero Beach and Ft. Pierce. Incumbent serves as the Administrative and Community Care Assistant of the Dental Service, VA Medical Center, West Palm Beach, FL and reports to the Chief, Dental Service.

Qualifications:

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• English Language Proficiency. Dental assistants must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with chapter 2, section D, paragraph 5a, this part.
• 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)]. OR
• Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combinations of experience and education are qualifying.

Certification

• Radiologic Competence Certification-Documentation Submitted. 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).
• Certification by the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB). The American Dental Association (ADA) recognizes DANB as the national certification for Dental Assistants. [Required for all positions above the full performance level.]

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations: In addition to meeting the basic requirements stated above, the following qualifications criteria must be met in determining the appropriate grade assignment of candidates.

GS-7 Clinical Expanded Function Dental Assistant

• Experience: At least 1 year of experience at the next lower grade level (GS-6) or equivalent that demonstrates the core competencies described at that level. (Examples of experience include: using the concepts of four-handed dentistry; assists with specialty procedures including oral surgery, periodontal therapy, endodontic, prosthodontic and implant placement and restoration; anticipates surgeons/specialists needs at each stage of treatment; takes preliminary impressions; selects and manipulates a variety of gypsums and waxes; pours, trims and evaluates the quality of diagnostic casts; fabricates custom trays)
• Certification: Certification by the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB). The American Dental Association (ADA) recognizes DANB as the national certification for Dental Assistants.

Demonstrated knowledge, skills, and abilities: In addition to the above listed required experience, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following technical knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs):

• Ability to perform dental assisting expanded functions
• Comprehensive working knowledge of advanced imaging techniques in order to provide instruction (e.g. cone beam, cephalometric, advanced panoramic imaging, TMJ, etc)

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

Physical Requirements: The work is mostly sedentary, but may involve some walking, bending and occasional lifting of up to 20 pounds.

Responsibilities:

Major Duties of the Position included but not limited:

Community Care (CC) clinical functions

• Monitors incoming consults both for internal to the clinic and external for CC Mission Act- Ensures Internal consults are received within standard time rules
• Ensures the dental eligibility is correct
• Ensures the patient is appointed in the correct clinic needed after the clinical review is completed by dentist
• Evaluates incoming Mission Act CC consult requests- Ensures the dental eligibility is correct
• Forwards the eligible consults from ADMIN to CC DENTAL consults
• Contacts patients to gather dental specific requirements for the consults
• Ensures that patients are contacted for CC appointments in conjunction with CC staff and enter the scheduled appointments in the non-count CC clinic
• Interacts directly with patients and CC dental offices to manage the dental care treatment plans Updates the CC consult treatment plans
• Ensures the CC consults are closed after initial visit and documentation has been received
• Coordinates the uploading of CC records into CPRS
• Receives dental x-rays from CC dental offices in a digital format and includes the x-rays along with the treatment plan request for review by VA Dentist
• Communicate treatment plan changes with the CC dental office and the patient to ensure the office and the patient understands the treatment plan changes and documents this in CPRS
• Create surrogate consult or update existing consults when a patient has had a dental emergency outside of regular VA dental clinic hours on the next business day
• Reconciles bills from CC dentists that do not match the approved treatment plans and updates the consults as needed including communicating with the CC dental office and patient as needed

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm
Telework: Not Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position
Functional Statement#: 41717F

Salary : $53,208