Photo By Senior Airman Skylar Ellis | Chloe Osada, Dental Assistant Program student, assists a dentist during a tooth...... read more read more
Subscribe
JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. – As the workday begins at the Fort Eustis Dental Clinic, students from the first iteration of the installation’s inaugural Dental Assistant Program are already on the move.
With clipboards in hand, they move through exam rooms, learning the ins and outs of basic clinic functions.
The program launched its first rotation at Fort Eustis in October 2025 through a partnership between the dental clinic and the American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces.
“It’s designed to give military family members a pathway into dental assisting through real clinic experience,” said Regina Kosiba, American Red Cross dental assistant program lead.
Eligible military family members, including spouses and dependents age 18 and older, complete classroom instruction and chairside training alongside dental providers.
“We come in, we take care of patients, and we get to do the procedures chairside. We take X-rays, we do restorations, and we assist with oral surgery,” said Anna Mende, a current student and U.S. Air Force military spouse.
The program is designed to offer military families training for a career field that holds relevance and employability across the globe. While similar programs exist at other military installations, the Fort Eustis program plans to expand to dental clinics across the Hampton Roads area.
Over the course of six months, students complete 600 hours of classroom instruction and chairside training, while working up to 40 hours each week. The program begins with mandatory classroom instruction, then shifts into clinical rotations where students learn the pace of patient flow and the expectations of a working clinic.
“Rotations expose students to more than chairside assisting,” Kosiba said. “They see how the clinic runs, how teams coordinate appointments, and how to adjust to different providers and specialties.”
For Mende, the experience has also been shaped by the support system around the program.
“I find a lot of satisfaction in it,” Mende said. “If this were a civilian program, I’d be struggling, but here, people understand the military lifestyle and they support it. It’s been a blessing for me.”
Students who complete the program receive a letter of completion documenting their training. Graduates leave with clinical experience to support future job applications.
For military family members interested in applying for a future class, the program plans to begin taking applications again in late summer. For more information, follow American Red Cross of Virginia on Facebook, Instagram, and X at @VARedCross.
| Date Taken: | 02.05.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 03.02.2026 12:29 |
| Story ID: | 559205 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 10 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, From Classroom to Chairside: Dental Program Builds Careers at Fort Eustis, by SrA Skylar Ellis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
