Mom, counselor, architect and construction worker.
“There are so many hats to wear here in the office,” said Elizabeth Shemberger, an orthodontic assistant for Dr. C. Moody Alexander in Dallas and his son, Dr. J. Clifton Alexander.
With her motherly nature, she preaches proper oral hygiene.
“Sometimes you have a patient who is not cooperating. We ask, “What’s going on?’ That will lead the patient into talking to us about personal life issues,” said Shemberger, 36, who then takes on a counselor’s role.
“Before you know it, you’ve built a personal relationship with that patient and vice versa.”
With a smile at the work in progress, she becomes both architect and construction worker. “Making straight teeth is like a work of art – creating the plan, working the plan and seeing the results,” she explained.
As more adults and children get braces, the demand for orthodontic assistants has mounted to serve the widening pool of orthodontists.
“The total universe of patients has nearly doubled since 1982, as compared to estimates of the numbers of patients in the year 2000,” said Pam Paladin, spokeswoman for the American Association of Orthodontists in St. Louis.
“We are surveying our members now to update these numbers. There was growth of 14.2 percent in adult patients from 1989 to 2000.”
Since then, an estimated 5 million people in the United States and Canada have undergone orthodontic treatment each year, up from 3.5 million in 1989.
The elder Dr. Alexander, 73, has spotted these tre nds during his long career. He is a clinical professor and former chairman of orthodontics at Baylor College of Dentistry and past president of the Southwest Society of Orthodontics.
“We need more assistants for the young orthodontists soon out of school,” he said. “There is always an opportunity for a good orthodontic assistant.”
His office employs four full-time assistants. Two part-time assistants work at a Coppell, Texas, location operated by his son.
Their patient pool is half adults, half children. Alexander hires “people who are sincerely dedicated to taking care of patients,” he said.
Every orthodontist is diffferent
“Orthodontic assisting is an on-the-job training profession. Every orthodontist is different and has different techniques. Of course, there are basic fundamentals that can be learned in assistant training school.”
With orthodontics carving out a specialty within dentistry, this type of assistant performs more specialized tasks requiring one-on-one interaction with patients.
But the main function involves hands-on adjustment of braces. In addition, an assistant makes impressions of teeth and takes X-rays and photographs.
Orthodontic assistants can expect to earn $1 to $2 more per hour than dental assistants. Median hourly earnings of dental assistants, reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, were $13.10 in 2002, the latest available figures (http://www.stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos163.htm).
“However, it is not unheard of for a valuable orthodontic assistant to make $20 or more per hour,” according to the site, maintained by the Academy of Orthodontic Assisting (www.orthoassisting.net).
An experienced orthodontic assistant can fetch $33,000 to $40,000 a year, Alexander said.
Lack of trained orthodontic staff is one of the top three challenges facing orthodontists now and in the future. This shortage was addressed at the annual American Association of Orthodontists Leadership Conference in January.
Academy of Orthodontic Assisting
Traditional learn-as-you-go training has been “time-consuming, expensive due to lost productivity, frustrating and often ineffective,” said Dr. Doug Depew, 42, an orthodontist in Kennesaw, Ga., and founder of the Academy of Orthodontic Assisting, a network of vocational schools in several metropolitan areas.
Since its inception in the late 1990s, the academy has had more than 350 graduates.
An online course allows students anywhere to learn at their own pace. Divided into 14 lessons and tests, the program covers 58 topics. A textbook and online-support instructor are provided.
“Who pays for the education depends upon the situation,” said Linda Reese, a registered nurse who is the academy’s administrator. “If the doctor has hired someone with no experience, they may send the assistant through the program.
“If a student does not yet work in the field, they would pay for their education themselves. This would make them much more marketable when they start interviewing.”
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