Iris Minchaca, RDA — Registered Dental Assistant
The steady hand beside you through every appointment
Schedule ConsultationThe Team Behind The Chair
Iris Minchaca Registered Dental Assistant
Ask most implant patients what they remember about the day of surgery and they will name the assistant before they name the instruments. At Center for Implant Dentistry, that assistant has been Iris Johanna Minchaca Mejia since 2008.
For more than a decade and a half she has worked chairside as a Registered Dental Assistant — the person who preps the room, hands the surgeon what is needed before it is asked for, and keeps an eye on how the patient is doing while everyone else is looking at the tooth.
Her clinical experience is matched by something patients never see and always benefit from: an unusual diligence about the fundamentals of safety, sterilization, and privacy.
Nearly Two Decades Of Getting It Right
Iris joined the practice in 2008 and has been a steady presence in our operatories ever since — long enough that many of our longest-standing patients have never had a surgical appointment here without her in the room.
What sets her apart is what she does between appointments. Year after year, Iris pursues continuing education well beyond what is asked of her: the current Cal/OSHA safety standards, workplace violence prevention, the California Dental Practice Act, infection control, and HIPAA privacy compliance — much of it through respected providers such as Tom Terry Seminars. Those are the unglamorous subjects that decide whether an implant practice is genuinely safe or merely looks it.
That rigor also makes her a natural teacher. Center for Implant Dentistry supports clinical training through affiliations with programs including Carrington College, and an assistant who keeps her own standards this current is exactly the person newer clinicians should be learning beside.
Role & Continuing Education
Continuing education is a licensing requirement in California. Iris treats it as a floor rather than a ceiling — these are the subjects she has kept current, year after year.
Role At The Practice
- Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) — Center for Implant Dentistry
- With the practice since 2008
Chairside in the same operatories since 2008.
- Supports a practice affiliated with clinical training programs, including Carrington College
Continuing Education
- Cal/OSHA workplace safety standards
- Workplace violence prevention
- California Dental Practice Act
- Infection control
- HIPAA privacy and patient confidentiality
- Coursework through providers including Tom Terry Seminars
Registered Dental Assistants work under the supervision of a licensed dentist and do not diagnose or plan treatment. Verify any California RDA license at the Dental Board of California’s license lookup.
Away From The Operatory
Credentials describe what someone is qualified to do. They say very little about why a nervous patient relaxes when a particular person walks into the room.
When Iris steps away from the clinic, her attention goes to her family — she is raising two children — and to the piano, which she plays for the same reason she is good at her job: it rewards patience and precision in equal measure.
That quiet steadiness is what patients feel from the chair. Surgery days are not calm by nature. Iris makes them feel that way.