California Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) Written Practice Exam

The purpose of inverting the dental dam is to ________.

1. Increase patient comfort

2. Prevent saliva leakage

3. Make the procedure faster

4. Demonstrate dental proficiency

The correct answer is: Prevent saliva leakage

Inverting the dental dam refers to flipping it over so that the shiny side faces the patient’s mouth. This helps to prevent saliva, blood and other fluids from leaking out, thus providing a clean and dry environment for the dentist to work in. It also avoids any contamination of the treatment area. Option A may seem like a plausible answer, but inverting the dental dam is primarily done for practical reasons rather than for patient comfort. Option C and D are incorrect as inverting the dental dam does not affect the speed of the procedure or serve as a demonstration of dental proficiency. Therefore, option B is the most suitable answer as it accurately describes the purpose of inverting the dental dam.