Leslie Mendez

Working as a Dental Assistant in pediatrics was one of the greatest experiences in my dental career. As a dental assistant working with children, I learned how to help comfort and ease their anxiety for treatments or simple recall visits, how to best educate and communicate with children and review proper oral hygiene habits to prevent cavities, taking x-rays on children/adults with special needs, note taking on Dolphin(Dental System used), panoramic radiographs, camera pictures, scanning patient documents, scheduling treatment/recall appointments, messaging parents about upcoming appointments, communicating with the dual side of the practice, verifying insurance. Working at this practice allowed me the opportunity to earn my N20 Certification and expand outside of my comfort-zone and I learned how to engage children and their families to provide them with the best care and education possible to support their oral hygiene health.

I started working at Culver’s when I was 13 as a crew member taking orders on the register and drive through, assisting customers in the dining room, and taking out food orders. When I turned sixteen I was able to learn more jobs such as how to use the grill, fryer station, and other kitchen tasks. At the age of eighteen I was given a promotion as Shift Leader. My responsibilities were to assist the manager on duty and lead the team if the manager needed to be elsewhere such as a meeting or scheduled break. I was also responsible for counting the money in the registers at the end of the night and securing it in the safe. When I turned nineteen, I was promoted to the position of opening Shift Manager. At the beginning of the day I would open the store with one of my co-workers. Together we would get ready by preparing the kitchen. Cleaning anything left behind from the night before, preparing fresh vegetables and ensuring we had enough stock for the day. I would do inventory count, money deposits, when one of my cashiers was low on change I would have to make sure we had enough in the safe for the next shift manager.

With more responsibility, the owners of the restaurant would transfer me to other Culver’s around the area to help their teams out.

I started working at Dental Dreams as an inexperienced dental assistant. Very highly motivated and eager to learn, I walked in the office asking if they were willing to train on the job. I was interviewed and the hiring manager took a chance and hired me. I completed the required hours needed assisting chair side for restorations, cosmetic treatments, and routine check up visits with adults and children in order to obtain my certificate as a certified dental assistant.

Working at dental dreams, I acquired the following skills as a dental assistant:

• Coronal Polishing/ Sealant Certified
• Breaking down and setting up operation procedures/ rooms
• Patient confidentiality/HIPPA
• Proper sterilization procedures/OSHA
• X-ray radiographs (Dental)
• Assisting the dentist chair side for treatments (Composite/Amalgam fillings, extractions/surgical extractions, RCT/pulpotomy, dental impressions, crown delivery, temporary fillings.)

As a personal shopper we are grouped into two jobs. We either work on the sales floor picking items for online orders and bag the groceries, or we work in the back room preparing orders to go out and take them out to customers. I have worked as a Walmart Personal Shopper for a year and and four months and have learned both jobs on top of smaller tasks. On certain days when managers are not present, the store manager has left me responsible for the shift running smoothly and so far I’ve been able to lead the team efficiently enough to have all orders taken out, resolved issues customers have had while picking up their order, and kept my co-workers motivated on busy days to complete the tasks we are left.