How Three Sisters All Found Their Way to Dental Assisting

One sister’s career choice sparked a family tradition of learning dental assisting, working in dental offices and talking teeth.

First came Mikayla.

Then Raven.

Then, after some gentle sisterly persuasion, Devyn.

At this point, you could say Dental Assisting is a family affair.

For Mikayla, the interest in dentistry started long before she ever enrolled at Willis. Growing up, she was curious about everything happening around her at the dentist’s office. She’d listen to the dental team talking and wonder what all those abbreviations meant. And she actually liked going for her cleanings, especially when there was bubblegum-flavoured anything involved.

The interest stuck with her, even if she put it on the back burner for a while.

Years later, after having her second daughter, Mikayla decided it was time to do something for herself and establish a career. She searched for colleges near her, came across Willis College Ottawa campus and noticed the Dental Assistant program.

It felt like a pretty good reason to revisit that old interest. She applied, and she loved it.

“I absolutely love the job and really thought my sisters would do so well in it,” Mikayla says.

So she started encouraging them to give it a try, too. Little did she know they’d both eventually follow her into the same program.

From left to right: Raven, Devyn, Mikayla.

Sister Number Two

Raven had always been interested in the dental field, but hearing about Mikayla’s experience helped turn that interest into a career plan. And there was another big reason she chose Willis College: flexibility.

At the time, Raven was a single mom of two, so being able to complete most of the program online was a major plus. If one of her kids was sick from daycare, she could stay home without missing class.

And Mikayla told her that a dental assisting job could offer the kind of work-life balance she was looking for as a parent. Many dental offices operate during regular weekday hours and are closed on evenings, weekends, and holidays, something that appealed to both sisters. 

Plus, she had a built-in study buddy.

Mikayla and Raven would throw dental questions at each other to see who knew the answer. They helped each other study for exams and the National Dental Assisting Examining Board (NDAEB), too.

Raven and Mikayla also felt they had great support on-campus. “My teacher Tarwyn made my time at Willis so memorable,” Raven says. “She really had an impact on me and I’m so thankful for my time with her.”

Mikayla remembers practicing impressions with her classmates, a particularly messy exercise that was also pretty funny. “It was nice to know that we were all on the same level and just learning,” she says.

For Raven, the hands-on experience became just as important once she moved into her host office placement. Her advice to future students is simple: repetition matters. “Doing things hands on over and over again is the best way you’re going to retain the knowledge and become efficient at your tasks as a dental assistant,” she says.

Mikayla also made sure Raven knew that Dental Assisting wasn’t a one-lane career. “You can go from assisting to management, you can go from assisting to admin, you can go from assisting to working in the lab,” Raven says. “You can even become an instructor.”

Raven graduated, became a Level 2 Dental Assistant, and started taking on more responsibilities at her dental office.

Which brings us to…

“Now we just have to get Devyn in Assisting.”

Yes, that is a real thing Raven remembers saying.

Devyn wasn’t sure what she wanted to do at first, but dental had always been somewhere in the back of her mind. And with two older sisters already in the field, she had plenty of people to ask.

“I’ve always looked up to my sisters,” Devyn says. “They’ve been my role models, which is why I took their advice and decided to follow in their footsteps.”

Her sisters told her about the program, their instructors and what working in a dental office was actually like. They also told her about something they had experienced themselves: a learning environment where they could ask questions, practice new skills and gradually build confidence. 

It didn’t take long for Devyn to see why her sisters had enjoyed the program so much. It’s primarily virtual, but students spend time on campus, too. During her first week there, she got a taste of what the program was really like. It was busy and she loved it.

“That was what made me realize how much I like the program and how excited I was to start my career,” she says.

The friendships were another part of the experience. Devyn says she has made amazing friends during the program and had some of her best experiences during her placements. Mikayla still keeps in touch with friends she made while she was a student, too.

Now Devyn is completing her placement at Raven’s dental office, which means the sisters have somehow managed to turn family gatherings into professional development opportunities.

Raven helps Devyn with new material, Devyn gets hands-on experience and everyone gets to talk about teeth a little more than the average family probably does.

Apparently, they were always going to end up here.

Ask the sisters what they have in common, and you’ll hear words like patient, reliable, hardworking, and helpful. But their connection to dentistry goes back even further.

Growing up, all three had the same family dental office,  and they loved the people who worked there.

“Everyone there was so full of life and professional and friendly,” Raven says. “We couldn’t help but want to be like them when we were older.”

Their mom doesn’t quite share their enthusiasm. She finds it pretty funny that all three of her daughters became dental assistants, considering she’s afraid of the dentist. Still, she supports them and is happy they found good career paths that they love, even if she doesn’t quite understand their fascination with being involved in the more intense dental cases.

Three Sisters, Three Different Paths

Taking the same program doesn’t mean they’ve all ended up doing the same thing.

Raven has continued growing in private practice, taking on more responsibility and getting cross-trained in different areas.

Devyn is still in school, so she’s figuring out where she’d like to take her career. She’s interested in orthodontics, although she’s also enjoying her placement at Raven’s office and hopes to continue gaining experience there.

Mikayla took her dental career in a different direction. After graduating from Willis, she worked in private practice for 10 months before joining the Canadian Armed Forces as a Dental Technician.

Her husband, who is also in the CAF, encouraged her to look into the trade while she was still in school. The idea of combining healthcare with military service and potentially working at different bases across Canada or deploying overseas really appealed to her. Her Willis training gave her the foundation she needed, but she’s continued learning ever since.

That’s something all three sisters agree on: you never really stop learning in dental assisting. New software, new tools, new equipment, new procedures; there’s always something.

For Devyn, that’s part of the appeal. “There will always be something new to learn,” she says.

Where They’re Headed Next 

For now, the three sisters are continuing to build their careers in their own ways and they still have each other to turn to when they need advice, want to swap stories or randomly quiz each other on dental questions.

Mikayla, Raven and Devyn may have taken the same path into dental assisting, but where that path takes each of them next is still up for grabs.

And while their careers are taking them in different directions, they still have something most coworkers don’t: two sisters who already understand the terminology, have probably heard the same dental questions a hundred times and aren’t afraid to quiz each other out of nowhere.

Not a bad study group.

Just don’t expect their mom to volunteer for a cleaning.