This Technical Committee Report prepared by industry representatives in Idaho lists the skills currently necessary for an employee in that state to obtain a job in dental assisting, retain a job once hired, and advance in that occupational field. (Task lists are grouped according to duty areas generally used in industry settings, and are used as the basis for modules in the statewide curriculum guide development process and for generating student profiles.) The first section of the guide is the task profile, which provides the Idaho code number for the occupation and outlines major concepts/content, laboratory activities, teaching considerations, and intended outcomes. The guide then lists 13 task areas with subtasks (competencies) for dental assisting: employability skills; general office procedures; structures, and functions, and pathologies of dental and general anatomy; dental instruments and equipment; microbiology, disease prevention, and infection control; pharmacology and anesthesia in dentistry; chairside assisting; dental office emergency care and cardiopulmonary resuscitation; dental radiographic procedures; dental materials; preventive dentistry; legal and ethical responsibilities of dental health care workers; and sexually transmitted diseases. (KC)