The cover letter is one of the most important components of your application to dental assistant jobs and can make the different between getting hired and getting rejected, especially in this ultra competitive job market. The cover letter presents the first opportunity you have to tell a prospective employer about yourself in your own words. There are several tips you must follow in order to ensure that your cover letter stands out and remains in the mind of dental assistant employers.

The most important strategy you must adopt in writing an effective and powerful cover letter is to personalize it. Absolutely avoid using To Whom It May Concern and even Dear Sir or Madam on your cover letter because it sounds like all the spam in your inbox. You have to take it upon yourself to conduct some research and determine exactly who will be reading your cover letter. This will allow you to include an appropriate greeting in your cover letter. You also must research about the dental practice and its needs and integrate this into your cover letter. This will really show prospective employers that you are dedicated, well-informed, and motivated. Employers love spotting these character traits in dental assistant job candidates. It is also imperative that you address the specific job position you are applying for and highlight the relevant qualifications and strengths you have that would make you a strong candidate. You have to aggressively sell yourself to prospective employers through your cover letter. Why should the employer reading this cover letter hire you? It is important that you are concise and to the point in your cover letter. Employers are busy people and they do not have much time analyzing and dissecting convoluted cover letters. One final advice I have for you is to consider hiring a professional editor to look over your cover letter. A professional editor can really help polish your cover letter and in a competitive job market, any edge you can muster out can be crucial.

It is important that you really handle your cover letter with care. It is the first chance prospective employers have to really get to know you. A positive impression can make all the difference in the world in successfully finding dental assistant jobs.

When interviewing for dental assistant jobs, there can be a lot of waiting in anticipation, which can cause undue stress and anxiety. There’s a wait after submitting your resume for consideration for a job to see if you’re going to land an interview. There’s a wait after an interview to see if you’re going to be offered a job. And if you are offered a dental assistant position, there can even be a wait to receive a formal offer package. While these waits can be stressful, it’s important to know when to take action and when to be patient.

So You’ve Been Offered a Dental Assistant Job!

That’s great news. But let’s say that the hiring manager tells you that they’re going to present a formal offer to you within a certain number of days and you haven’t heard or seen anything yet. This can be a very challenging time to sit back and wait. You’ve come so close to landing that job, but now your on pins and needles hoping to have that offer in your hands. And the doubts begin to creep in. “What if they’ve given it to someone else?”

Don’t Stop Your Job Hunt

Even if you’ve received an informal verbal confirmation that you’re going to be offered a dental assistant position, don’t put your job hunt on hold. If things don’t materialize, you want to be moving in the right direction. Cover your bases by keeping your search active in the event that the offer doesn’t show up.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask

If you have been informally notified that you should be expecting an offer, ask when you might see it. If you have a concrete idea of when the hiring manager expects to present a formal offer to you, then you’ll know how long to wait before following up.

Follow Up

If the stated amount of time passes and you still haven’t received a formal offer for a dental assistant position, don’t hesitate to cal the hiring manager to ask where they are in the process. Any number of things might delay the hiring process, but by following, you show that you’re interested in the opening and are taking a proactive approach.

Again, while waiting for an offer for a dental assistant job, the most important thing to do is to continue your search. By just stopping cold when you have a good felling about a position, you’re only going to be very disappointed if the offer never comes through.

If you’re researching dental assistant career as well as the dental assistant salary outlook throughout the nation, you’ll likely be very happy to hear that this profession is expected to be among the fastest growing in the country over the coming years. Through the year 2018, the demand for dental assistants is expected to grow by over 36%, which is a very rapid rise in employment figures as compared to other professions. There are several reasons for this which we’ll take a brief look at in this article.

Retiring Dental Support Staff

As the “baby boomer” generation reaches retirement age, we’re seeing a large number of employees across all professions leaving the work force. This is expected in dental practices as well, where dental assistants and hygienists who have worked in the industry for their entire career are now leaving full-time jobs. This will in turn have a positive impact on both the dental assistant salary and employment prospects over the next decade.

Retiring Practice Management

Many dental practice owners are reaching retirement age as well. While this may not seem like it would have a direct influence on the availability of dental assistant openings, it will for indirect reasons. These retiring practice owners are frequently handing over the management of their practices to new graduates of dental programs who are just entering the work force as trained dentists. These newly minted dentists have been trained in more recent years to rely on support staff more heavily than their predecessors, as dental program training in the past didn’t place quite as much emphasis on the use of dental assistants and hygienists.

Complexity of Procedures

In dental practices, the complexity of routine procedures which can be carried out during patient treatments has increased in recent years to battle issues such as advanced gum disease. By using dental assistants to regularly conduct some of the basic tasks involved in running a dental practice, dentists are able to focus on these more advanced treatments, which will lead to an increase in the demand for the profession as well as higher dental assistant salaries.

Longer Retention of Natural Teeth

As proper oral hygiene techniques have gained widespread acceptance throughout the country over the last few decades, the aging population tends to retain their natural teeth for much longer than in the past. This is leading to an overall increase in the number of patient visits for dental practices and subsequently increasing the demand for support staff, such as dental assistants.

As you can see, these factors make the profession a very attractive career choice for the coming years. With dental assistant salary numbers and employment opportunities on the rise, this can lead to very rewarding long-term job prospects.

If you’ve been working as a dental assistant and are considering asking your employer for a raise in your dental assistant salary, there are a few key factors to keep in mind as you present your request. In this article, we’ll discuss a few helpful strategies when it comes time for you to ask for an increase in your dental assistant salary.

Preparing Your Case for a Raise

Prior to actually requesting a raise, most employment and recruiting specialists will tell you that properly preparing your case is the single biggest key to success. If you feel that your performance merits a higher dental assistant salary than you’re currently earning, there are a few steps you can take to prepare.

Leverage Your Unique Skills: If you have specialized skills that you bring to the dental practice, make the most of them. By focusing on your strengths and how they apply to your position and increase your value to the practice, you can begin to showcase the benefits of having you in the role of dental assistant.

Go the Extra Mile: Prior to asking for an increase in your dental assistant salary, one of the best ways to enhance your odds for better pay is to take on additional duties or volunteer for projects which are beyond the scope of your normal day to day duties as the practice’s dental assistant.

Keep a List of Your Key Accomplishments: Again, before you go into raise discussions, you need to have a sound case for why you should receive a higher dental assistant salary. One of the best ways to prepare is to keep a list of key achievements which you’ve reached on the job. If there are areas in which you’ve gone above and beyond your duties or processes which you’ve made more efficient, keep track of these things so that you can present them to the practice manager during your salary talks.

Know What You Want

If you do plan to ask for a raise, you need to be clear as to what you’re asking for. This is the single largest reason why many employees come away from asking for a pay increase with disappointment. If you plan to ask for an increase in your dental assistant salary, but don’t have a specific number in mind, you not only set yourself up to walk away without the raise you had hoped for, but you show a lack of proper planning with regard to your request.

Be Reasonable

You also need to be reasonable in your request. Don’t walk into raise negotiations thinking your going to get a 25% increase in your pay. You need to set a reasonable, modest amount for the increase to increase your chances of success.

Keep it Professional

Above all, you need to maintain professionalism if you plan to ask for a higher dental assistant salary. If your request is declined or you don’t get quite the raise you were after, thank your employer for considering your request and keep your emotions to yourself. You also should know that it’s never wise to threaten to leave your position if you don’t get the raise you were after. This may put you in a precarious position in the long run.

Receiving a job offer can be a very exciting time and once you have been extended employment as a dental assistant, it’s time to begin discussing the dental assistant salary with your prospective employer. As we mentioned in a previous article, the job interview is not the time to ask questions pertaining to the dental assistant salary associated with a particular opening. However, if you are offered the position, here are a few tips for effectively and professionally negotiating the dental assistant salary.

Know What’s Important to You

The first step in salary negotiations actually begins with you asking yourself a few questions about your priorities. Are you interested in a specific amount of income or are you seeking to find good work-life balance? Would you prefer to work a specific shift, have a short commute, or opportunities for advancement? These things all need to be thought through as they may play into your dental assistant salary negotiations. If the pay tends to be slightly lower than you would have preferred, but one or more of these factors are important to you and are an attractive part of the job offer, they should be weighed against pay.

Know Your Worth

If you are planning to negotiate a higher dental assistant salary than you expect the employer to offer, then you need to have concrete reasons for your request and you need to be able to communicate these to the hiring manager or practice owner. You should be able to provide factual examples of how you will add value to the practice in order to justify your negotiations.

Be Honest and Open

It’s very likely that the hiring manager will begin dental assistant salary discussions by asking you what range of pay you expect to receive. If this is the case, be up front about what you had in mind. You might phrase your response as: “I am currently looking for opportunities which pay between $14 to $16 per hour, however, there are other factors which I am evaluating as well so I can be flexible for the right opportunity”.

Remain Professional at All Times

The most important tip in negotiating your dental assistant salary during the hiring process is to remain professional in your discussions. The tone of these salary negotiations will likely reveal quite a bit to the employer as to how you will perform as a part of the staff while on the job and the type of personality you will bring to the practice, so you want these talks to be open and firm, yet positive and professional at all times.

To set out on your path to becoming a dental assistant and earning a dental assistant salary, you first step will be to find openings in your area and begin setting up interviews for those dental assistant jobs. However, finding a rewarding dental assisting position begins, as all jobs do, with the interview process. The job interview is not always the most enjoyable part of the job hunt, but by following a few simple tips, you can great increase your chances of success and at the same time, prepare yourself to go into the interview with confidence.

Begin With Practice Interviews

We all know the typical interview process looks like. We submit a cover letter and a resume to an employer and then hope to get called in for an interview. Once we attend an interview, we start off with some small talk about the job and ourselves, answer a series of questions posed by the employer, and then follow up by discussing any questions that we might have for the employer about the job. However, while most dental assistant job seekers know almost exactly what to expect in an interview, very few actually practice the interview beforehand. This is a critical step in order to appear prepared and confident in the interview for a dental assistant position.

To begin with, you can find a number of lists of potential interview questions online from sites such as Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com. Once you have found a list of potential interview questions, go through them and give some thought to your answers, using past experiences as frequently as possible for reference. After you’ve given some thought to those answers, you should actually practice answering the questions aloud just as you would in the interview.

Understanding Behavioral-Based Interviews

Additionally, you should prepare to answer questions which are behavioral-based. An increasing number of employers, including those hiring for dental assistant openings, are beginning to phrase questions which count on you to actually refer to past work or educational experiences as opposed to just providing hypothetical answers. The best way to prepare for behavioral-based interview questions is to write a list of 5 or so past experiences from school or the workplace, and decide how those experiences fit into the potential interview questions. Remember to stay on-target and positive with your responses.

Be Prepared

In addition to practicing the interview itself, you need to prepare for getting to the interview on time, bringing what you need, and being dressed appropriately. Nothing can cause more anxiety leading up to a job interview that rushing to get there on time. Know the location of the interview, exactly how long it will take you to get there, and what you plan to wear. Also plan on bringing along a few copies of your resume for interviewers and yourself.

Don’t Discuss the Dental Assistant Salary During the Interview

While it’s highly likely that you will want to know the dental assistant salary for the position for which you are interviewing, the first interview is generally not the time to discuss this. While the dental assistant salary associated with the position is important, asking about it early on in the interview process indicates to a potential employer that you are thinking more about your pay than proper patient care.

By properly preparing for the interview process, you’ll be on your way to finding a great position and a rewarding dental assistant salary.

As we’ve discussed in previous articles, proper professional certification can have a positive impact on the dental assistant salary and additionally, it can open up a more broad landscape of career opportunities for an aspiring dental assistant. However, working toward certification as a CDA, or certified dental assistant, begins with the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB) CDA exam. Understanding the nature of this exam as well as how to properly prepare for it is critical in successfully earning your certification. These exams are currently either recognized or required in 38 U.S. states.

About the DANB CDA Exam

Currently, the DANB exam for Certified Dental Assistants consists of three major components: radiation and health safety (RHS), infection control (IC), and the general chairside (GC) portion of the test. These are actually administered as three separate examinations, therefore it is important to understand the material covered under each module.

The radiation and health safety exam will cover topics relating to a critical component of preparing for a successful career as a dental assistant, radiology and x-ray techniques and safety. At this time, this module consists of 100 multiple-choice questions and will allow the practicing dental assistant to hold certification that allows them to conduct radiological screening of a patient. There are no prerequisites for this module of the CDA exam, so applicants must simply apply to sit for this test.

The infection control exam is the second major component of the CDA examination and is also formatted as 100 multiple-choice questions. Again, no prerequisites are required to apply to sit for this test. As the title implies, this exam will cover health, safety, and laboratory techniques that relate to the prevention of infectious diseases.

The final component of the DANB CDA exam is the general chairside test. To apply for this 120 multiple-choice formatted exam, an applicant must provide supporting documentation that they have completed one of the three “eligibility pathways”. Currently, these three eligibility pathways are as follows:

• Graduation from a Commission on Dental Accreditation approved dental assisting program and a current CPR certification from a DANB approved provider
• A high school diploma or the equivalent, 3,500 working experience hours as a dental assistant within the previous two years for full-time employees and four years for part-time employees, and a current CPR certification from a DANB approved provider
• Proof of status as a current or former DANB Certified Dental Assistant along with a current CPR certification from a DANB approved provider

Preparing for the Exam

Once you have attained eligibility to apply for the entire CDA exam, you can begin to prepare for the test. Currently, DANB offers a number of excellent study guides for the test through their web site. These can be downloaded and use to develop a framework for your studies leading up to the exam. You may also want to research and consider a number of the available third-party test preparation packages which often include a number of multimedia materials which can aid in reinforcing the topics which will be covered on the exam.

If you’re serious about making the most of your career as a dental assistant and earning the best dental assistant salary possible, consider professional certification through the DANB even if your state does not require it.

If you’re interested in getting started in dental assisting and earning a dental assistant salary, then you probably know by now that you’ll want to attend a dental assisting certification program to gain the necessary medical and administrative skills that will be necessary to do the job. However, there are a few personality qualities that you won’t find being taught in any dental assistant training program that can help you shine on the job.

Are you a people person?

The primary personality trait that will help you excel as a dental assistant is an innate desire to work with people. After all, being a dental assistant means spending your days helping patients who most likely aren’t thrilled about visiting the dentist’s office in the first place. Having an easygoing and friendly personality can go a long way in helping patients to feel comfortable and well cared for during their visit. Being able to make small talk and chat easily with patients about dental hygiene and procedures can be one of the best ways to shine in this career.

Practice good communication skills

There are two primary functions that the dental assistant will be involved in day in and day out that require him or her to be a skilled communicator. First, the dental assistant must have very clear communication with the practicing dentist in order to respond to requests effectively and assist with procedures. Being able to listen carefully and ask questions when and as needed are the keys to success here. Additionally, a dental assistant will very often be the sole employee responsible for gathering the necessary medical background information for a patient’s file. Again, listening and asking probing questions are paramount.

Multi-tasking effectively

The dental assistant is often responsible for a wide variety of tasks, especially in smaller practices. One might often go from sterilizing, preparing, and delivering several instruments to the practicing dentist to scheduling appointments and handling medical billing a few moments later. The ability to effectively shift between various tasks and stay mentally focused on each one simultaneously will make you a start within a dental practice.

While these skills are not taught in the classroom, they can go a long way in helping you succeed in a career as a dental assistant and perhaps even boost your dental assistant salary.

The field of dental assisting is unique within the health care industry in that there are a large number of employees within the field who are currently practicing and earning a dental assistant salary who have no formal education or certification. While an increasing number of dental assistants are choosing to enroll for certificate programs (which are generally one year in duration) or associate’s degree programs (generally two years), it is possible to begin work as a dental assistant through on the job training and education. As we discussed in a previous article, the dental assistant salary and available job opportunities will increase with the completion of a certification program, however it is not required in all states.

If you are interested in working as a dental assistant without enrolling for one of these educational tracks, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. Again, the dental assistant salary is usually higher for those job candidates who hold professional certification. This may not always be the case, but if you elect to forgo formal training, keep in mind that your wages may eventually reach a plateau.

Additionally, you will need to find a dental practice which will be willing to invest the time required to train you on things such as instrument sterilization and usage, dental terminology, dental practices and procedures, and very often front office tasks as well.

Prior to recent years, this process of garnering the necessary skills required for dental assisting through on the job training was actually standard practice. Dentists who chose to utilize dental assistants within their practice simply hired an individual to do the job and then spent subsequent weeks training the new staff member. However, with the advent of dental assisting certificate programs, dentists are now able to hire employees who have a basic understanding of many of the skills required and therefore are spending less time in the training phase, although they may be required to offer a higher dental assistant salary to compensate individuals who have undergone formal training.

If you are interested in becoming a dental assistant and earning a dental assistant salary without enrolling for a formal certificate or degree program, be sure to research the state-specific regulations for your area and also spend some time determining if there are positions available which are willing to offer you on the job training. If this is the case for your location, you may just be able to enjoy this rewarding career with minimal or no time invested in completing formal training.

If you are considering becoming a dental assistant, you may be curious to know just how the dental assistant salary stacks up by state. There are a number of factors which can cause variances in the dental assistant salary from one state to the next. The lading factors that influence the state by state salaries are the cost of living within a state and, perhaps more importantly, the demand for dental assistants in a particular area.

Demand

The dental assisting field is unique in that there are many areas of the country where the demand for dental assistants is exceeding the number of qualified candidates in the labor force. There have been many speculations from experts in the industry as to why this is occurring (one of which is that the dental assistant salary is not sufficient to entice people to enter the field). Nonetheless, this trend is causing some interesting salary trends in certain parts of the country. Generally, states with very high costs of living are where the highest salary levels are found within any profession, however, for dental assistants, the shortage of qualified candidates is causing the biggest pay increases.

In 2008, for example, the states where the dental assistant salary was the highest turned out to be:

Alaska   $42,000
New Hampshire   $40,000
Minnesota   $40,000
Connecticut   $39,000
Massachusetts   $38,000

The interesting thing to note here is that none of these states have extremely high costs of living. The major factor influencing the dental assistant salary in these states is simply a shortage of dental assistants.

Cost of Living

Some states throughout the US are known for their high cost of living and this generally has a major impact on the dental assistant salary. When the cost of things like housing and food is high, employers must pay higher wages in order to attract qualified job candidates. What we found to be particularly interesting here is that the state with the highest cost of living, California, has a median dental assistant salary of only around $34,000. This is far below the top paying state, Alaska. This trend seems to imply that the state of California has a surplus of dental assistants relative to its cost of living index. This trend is not unique to California, either.

If you are considering becoming a dental assistant, be sure to conduct thorough research on the dental assistant salary in your own state to gain a better idea of what you might expect to earn in this profession.