Dental Assistant

About the role

The Eastern Oklahoma VA Health Care System is recruiting for two Dental Assistants to help care for our Veterans in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is an open continuous announcement until September 25, 2026. Qualified applicants will be considered and referred as vacancies become available.

Responsibilities

• Identify normal oral anatomy.
• Recognize instruments, materials, and standardized dental procedures used in all phases of restorative, surgical, endodontic and periodontal care and procedures.
• Maintain and perform basic interpretation of vital signs.
• Independently provide procedure-specific patient education and appropriate referral of patient concerns to treating dentist.
• Capture standard and special dental images of good diagnostic quality in traditional or digital formats.
• Perform maintenance on dental equipment used for routine and specialty dentistry.
• Enter and retrieve data utilizing electronic dental records.
• Assignments at the full performance level include, but are not limited to: Using the concepts of four-handed dentistry; assists with specialty procedures including oral surgery, periodontal therapy, endodontic, prosthodontic and implant placement and restoration.
• Anticipates dentists/surgeons/specialists' needs at each stage of treatment; takes preliminary impressions; selects and manipulates a variety of gypsums and waxes; pours, trims and evaluates the quality of diagnostic casts; fabricates custom trays.
• Provide dental assistant coverage at various Community Based Outpatient Clinics as needed.

Requirements

Open to all US Citizens and current permanent Federal employees of other agencies. NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this position. For more information, refer to Required Documents below.

Qualifications

• Basic Requirements: United States Citizenship - Must be a US Citizen.
• Experience and Education: Experience or Education - In addition to the basic requirements, 1 year of experience at the next lower level, OR 2 years of education above high school that included completion of a dental assistant program accredited by the American Dental Association's Commission on [Dental] Accreditation (CODA).
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities - Basic knowledge of infection control and safe instrument handling, basic knowledge of dental procedures and [medical emergencies], ability to perform basic radiographic image capture and processing/retrieval, basic knowledge of maintenance, care and storage of dental equipment, basic knowledge of patient privacy requirements, knowledge of anatomy and [ability to evaluate diagnostic quality], broad knowledge of common medical emergencies and vital signs measurement, basic knowledge of instruments, materials and standardized dental procedures, ability to learn and utilize software programs used within VHA, basic communication skills to provide patient instructions according to established protocol, ability to identify normal oral anatomy, advanced knowledge of instruments, materials, and standardized dental procedures used in all phases of restorative, surgical, endodontic and periodontal care and procedures, ability to monitor and perform basic interpretation of vital signs, ability to independently provide procedure-specific patient education and appropriate referral of patient concerns to treating dentist, ability to capture standard and special dental images of good diagnostic quality in traditional or digital formats, ability to perform maintenance on dental equipment used for routine and specialty dentistry, ability to enter and retrieve data utilizing electronic dental records, ability to perform dental assistant-appropriate laboratory procedure.

Skills

None specified in the provided job posting.

Benefits

Competitive salary and regular salary increases. When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade). Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)

Pay

Competitive salary and regular salary increases. When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade).

Schedule

Work Schedule: 7:00am-5:30pm, four days per week

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits package including:

• Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)
• Telework: Not Available
• Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
• Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Application Information

All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.

Background and Security Investigation

Must be proficient in written and spoken English. Subject to background/security investigation.

Onboarding Process

Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents).

Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Program

Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).

Required Documents

Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.