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CTE Student Success

Bradley Braitenback

Certificate: Dental Assisting 

What made you come to Cerritos College and why?

I like that Cerritos College has an accredited program and you get a Certificate in dental assisting. They also offer an Associates. I wanted to break free of minimum wage jobs and I wanted to find a career that offers increased pay based on the skills you have. I also like to help people. 

With a dental career, I have multiple specialties I can go into. For example, oral surgery, orthodontics, pediatrics working with children, or endodontics. I like the fact that you work with a patient that comes in for dental care. You work with them while assisting the doctor, after treatment you inform them on further care of their oral health. If they don’t adhere, well that’s okay because I get to be there to help them at every visit.

After this, I plan to get my Associates in dental assisting and apply to a university next year. Over the next 3 years, I will also be working at a dental office growing my knowledge, gaining experience, and networking, while taking night classes to prepare for dental school. The goal is to be a dentist, so I can travel with doctors without borders to help people in other countries with their oral health.

STUDENT ADVICE

Chase your fears, you’ll know growth and be afraid of nothing. Just be optimistic and have fun! It’s going to be hard in the beginning, but once you learn the skills and knowledge it becomes a breeze and it’s just a lot of fun and rewarding.

INSIGHT

All the faculty and staff have been a great help. They all put in a lot of years in their field and they are just highly skilled and knowledgeable.

I really like the hands-on approach in the program. Making provisional crowns, placing rubber dams, learning about the instruments and their uses, which just fascinated me more about dentistry. We get hands-on training with an internship at the end of the program, so we get to show off our skills and knowledge and further our growth, which will be a lot of fun.

Cerritos College

Dental Assisting 

For more information on enrollment, please refer to the current class schedule or consult a counselor.
www.cerritos.edu/dental-assisting