It’s likely that most dental patients have run into dental assistants and hygienists during their regular checkups, but they may be less familiar with expanded function dental assistants.

However, Tom Zajac, a program coordinator and instructor at Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center, said patients will be seeing more of the highly trained assistants in years to come.

Zajac, a former dentist, said the Altoona school is one of few with an EFDA – which students and instructors pronounce “eff-duh” – program, and people travel from as far as Erie to attend the courses.

EFDAs differ from a traditional dental assistant in that they are allowed to assist the dentist with more complex procedures.

While they are not allowed to drill teeth, the expanded function assistants can place fillings and temporary crowns and bridges, and perform other dental procedures, Zajac said.

The goal in training and hiring EFDAs is to increase patients’ access to care while alleviating dentists’ stressors, Zajac said, explaining lengthy waiting room times and doctors’ physical wear and tear could be alleviated as a result.

“The thought behind physicians assistants was so that doctors could see more patients every day,” Zajac said. “An EFDA is like a physicians assistant for a dentist.”

Zajac said the school offers a full-time, 10-month program, as well as a part-time, 12-week weekend program.

Each weekend class lasts about seven hours, Zajac said, but the same amount of class and clinical time – when students work alongside practicing dentists – is required in both programs.

“It’s a very rigorous process because it puts the academic and hands-on (work) together,” he said.

To secure the advanced position, students must complete 200 hours of schooling before passing a State Board of Dentistry exam.

The difference is class size. Zajac said the weekend program is designed for about six students while the full-time program can accommodate about 15.

“It’s part of the training,” Zajac said of the clinical work. “It’s unpaid.”

Even before students progress to the clinical stage, they are required to do hands-on work, Zajac said.

Zajac led an impromptu tour of an EFDA classroom while an instructor taught a dental assistant class in the background.

Numerous dental chairs lined the back of the room, some equipped with mannequin heads, which Zajac said are for instruction purposes. Some of the mannequins, he said, are built around real human teeth and bone.

The room also included many other dental related items, such as an X-ray machine and equipment sterilizers. Zajac said students must learn to operate the equipment so they are prepared when they enter a real dentist’s office.

Ashlee Fagans, a 19-year-old EFDA student from Duncansville, said the clinical work has been a highlight.

“I’m more of a hands-on person,” she said before revealing her favorite part of the experience. “Definitely working with the patients. I kind of just fell in love with it.”

Samantha Barnes, a 20-year-old student from Bedford, said she never heard of an EFDA until she visited with Zajac at the school.

“It pretty much took off from there,” she said, explaining she briefly considered becoming a dental hygienist, but because their work is limited to mostly cleaning, she chose the EFDA tract, which allows for more work options.

“It’s a job that is always going to be needed,” she said.

Students can choose to further education, obtaining an associate degree, which could increase salaries, Zajac said.

The average pay for an EFDA entering the field is about $15-$20 per hour, Zajac said, comparing the rate to a hygienist at about $25 per hour.

Zajac said this gap in payment likely is the result of the newness of the EFDA title. He said because employers are more familiar with hygienists, they are willing to pay them more money – even if they perform fewer procedures than EFDAs.

As EFDAs become more common, Zajac predicts the wage gap will shift.

As far as job placement is concerned, he said most of his students find work within six months of completing the program.

Jamie Hershey, an instructor’s assistant at the school, said some students are able to transition from school-required clinical work at a local practice to a full-time job.

Still, Zajac said older dentists and some patients may have a hard time adjusting to seeing EFDAs in exam rooms.

Hershey said she worked as an EFDA for some time, and the dentist whose office she worked in took

full advantage of her presence.

“Even if he wasn’t busy, he’d want me to do his fillings, so he could catch up reading the paper or whatever,” she said. “The dentists will have much more time.”

Mirror Staff Writer Sean Sauro is at 946-7535.