The dentist chair can be a nerve racking experience no matter the age and even when the dentist is gone to another patient in a busy work day, there's always one person there beside you dealing with oral health and that's a dental assistant.

This week marks Dental Assistant Appreciation Week in Canada.

Dana Uchacz, Okotoks Orthodontics Assistant and Treatment Coordinator, says all staff working with Dr. Darin Ward put in a lot of hard work and effort to make patients are comfortable during their visits.

"We change the wires on a day to day basis, we do the appliance adjustments with him, we take impressions, we setup treatment plans and we de-bond braces with him," she says.

Uchacz has been on both the dentist and orthodontic side of the chair as an assistant and have enjoyed her time working with those correcting their smiles as to working into straight dental care.

"The confidence that comes out in people, the self-esteem that comes out in people is phenomenal when they're done treatment so for us it's super rewarding and completely different having a tooth drilled and filled, needle pokes and that sort of thing."

Uchacz says being in an Orthodontic office is obviously different from a regular dentist but still has the same feeling as working with someone with teeth cleaning as they do working with tooth correction.

"People don't like to come to a dentist office. They get needles, they have to have cavities filled and teeth worked on but it's rewarding because people get to see the before and afters and we get to see the change we give to patients."

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