FORT SILL, Okla. -- Fort Sill Dental Activity held a ceremony for five graduates of the Red Cross Dental Assistant Apprentice program Aug. 5 at Graham Resiliency Training Center here.
The graduates are Heather Frederick, wife of Staff Sgt. Richard Frederick; Mandy Markham, wife of Staff Sgt. Jason Markham; Ali Soderberg, wife of Sgt. 1st Allen Soderberg; and Karen Heffern, wife of Staff Sgt. Ryan Heffern. Jennifer Tice, wife of Staff Sgt. Shaun Tice, also completed the program, but was not present at the graduation.
Col. Michael Roberts, Fort Sill DENTAC commander, greeted the audience and spoke about the importance of training dental assistants through this program.
"The Red Cross Dental Assistant program has been a pipeline for the dental corps for decades. Throughout my career I have consistently worked with Red Cross volunteers at almost every assignment, especially overseas, where these volunteers were often the only dental assistants we had. So I understand the value and importance of this program, because it is exceptional," Roberts said.
Capt. Susanna Cammann, Red Cross Dental Assistant Apprenticeship program director, echoed the importance of well-trained dental assistants to a dental practice.
"When you are a dentist, you can't really do your job without a great assistant that knows their doctor, communicates with the patients and helps the procedure go faster. That is crucial to help the dentists do their job," said Cammann.
She went on to explain that each student completed 120 hours of classroom learning with daily quizzes and a final exam the students must pass to advance to the clinical portion.
Once they began clinical work, they rotated through all the dental clinics on post. The volunteers completed 1,000 hours of training over a nine-month period, with more than 60 evaluations on various dental procedures.
"We had a total of 5,000 hours of volunteer assistance in our clinics. It's a great program for these women, because it has given them a taste of the dental field. Now many of them will be applying for jobs as fully-paid dental assistants, either inside DENTAC or out in the community," Cammann said.
Mitzi Roberts, Fort Sill Red Cross Station adviser and wife of the DENTAC commander, explained the importance of the program to the Red Cross and Fort Sill.
"The volunteer service these ladies give is very valuable, not only to the military community, and specifically DENTAC, but also for the benefit of these women. If they enrolled in a dental assistant training program downtown, they would be paying about $15,000 for this same education," she said.
Mitzi Roberts went on to say that one of the purposes of the Red Cross is to provide all members of the armed forces and their families with support and comfort whenever it is needed.
"These dental assistants really put action to that task, providing hands-on care to the service members and dependents who sit in their chairs," she said.
After the volunteers were given certificates recognizing their achievements, Cammann also received the Army Achievement medal for meritorious achievement as project officer for the 2013 Fort Sill Red Cross Dental Assistant program.
"The Fort Sill program has garnered the reputation of being exceptional, and I think a large part of that is due to Cammann's efforts and those who went before her. Great honor has come to our Fort Sill Red Cross and DENTAC, and we are working to make this program the standard across the Army," Mitzi Roberts said.
Applications for the next dental assistants class are available at the Reynolds Army Community Hospital Red Cross office or DENTAC headquarters, 652 Hamilton Road. Classes are open to any civilian over the age of 18 years with a valid military dependent ID and a high school diploma or GED. The application deadline is Nov. 15, and applicants will need to enroll in the American Red Cross. Classes begin Jan. 7, 2014 with three weeks of classroom instruction, followed by approximately five months of hands-on training in the dental clinics.
For more information call 580-442-5518.
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