If you like to work with people, you may enjoy being a dental receptionist. Your job responsibilities will be general, and you will need to visit with clients, schedule appointments, and perform administrative tasks. You will also be required to answer clients' questions, take and process payments, answer the phone, contact clients, file records, and do basic accounting.
It is not difficult to be a dental receptionist, but you need to be organized, ethical, and punctual. Communication skills are a must, and some computer knowledge is also very good. As a dental receptionist, you will be in charge of the front office area, and you need to know the dental world.
A high school diploma or GED is necessary, and you need to have 0 to two years of work experience as a receptionist. Some dental offices may expect you to have associate degrees or higher and specific clerical and dental training. You will be busy and make an average of $28,000 per year.
What is a Dental Receptionist?
What Does a Dental Receptionist Do
There are certain skills that many dental receptionists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, computer skills and customer-service skills.
How To Become a Dental Receptionist
If you're interested in becoming a dental receptionist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 18.5% of dental receptionists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.1% of dental receptionists have master's degrees. Even though some dental receptionists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Dental Receptionist Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a dental receptionist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as office assistant, progress to a title such as executive assistant and then eventually end up with the title office manager.
Average Salary for a Dental Receptionist
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Dental Receptionist
There are several types of dental receptionist, including:
Receptionist
Role:
This is one of those jobs that comes with a lot of opportunities. In fact, there are receptionist positions across almost every industry so you definitely won't have a hard time finding a job in this field.
Typically, a receptionist needs a high school diploma. More specific training will be given once you have the job. Then, when you've got the swing of things, you'll be answering phones and helping guests like a pro.
- Average Salary: $30,571
- Degree: High School Diploma
Front Desk Receptionist
Role:
Since a lot of different industries require a front-desk receptionist, you can assume that there will never be a shortage of opportunity just waiting for you. It'll take you no time to find a job that you enjoy.
Typically, front desk receptionists are required to earn a high school diploma. Which means you won't have to spend a lot of your hard-earned cash on an education. As a bonus, no student loans so you can start saving for retirement early in the game.
- Average Salary: $31,050
- Degree: High School Diploma
Medical Receptionist
Role:
While being knowledgeable is important in this position, memorizing might be even more important. If a patient comes in with an emergency, you need to be able to stay calm while figuring out exactly where they need to go. And some hospitals are pretty big, so that can be a difficult task.
The job requires you to have a high school diploma before you can get started. And it's useful to be a good communicator as well. You wouldn't want to accidentally send a patient with a broken arm to the pregnancy center. Unless, of course, that patient was also pregnant - but that's another story.
- Average Salary: $31,960
- Degree: Associate Degree
States With The Most Dental Receptionist Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active dental receptionist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where dental receptionists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Dental Receptionist Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 3,669 | $39,126 |
| 2 | Florida | 3,217 | $34,807 |
| 3 | Texas | 2,785 | $33,003 |
| 4 | New York | 2,025 | $40,869 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | 1,748 | $33,300 |
| 6 | Illinois | 1,586 | $37,272 |
| 7 | New Jersey | 1,527 | $36,115 |
| 8 | Michigan | 1,364 | $37,655 |
| 9 | Washington | 1,349 | $41,393 |
| 10 | Ohio | 1,310 | $39,010 |
| 11 | Georgia | 1,235 | $30,481 |
| 12 | Massachusetts | 1,186 | $41,420 |
| 13 | Minnesota | 994 | $40,659 |
| 14 | North Carolina | 958 | $32,995 |
| 15 | Indiana | 939 | $33,491 |
| 16 | Arizona | 925 | $35,438 |
| 17 | Tennessee | 921 | $31,830 |
| 18 | Virginia | 907 | $35,312 |
| 19 | Missouri | 905 | $35,356 |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 864 | $40,985 |
| 21 | Colorado | 791 | $35,842 |
| 22 | Maryland | 666 | $37,559 |
| 23 | Oregon | 634 | $41,808 |
| 24 | South Carolina | 590 | $32,113 |
| 25 | Iowa | 548 | $34,205 |
| 26 | Connecticut | 482 | $38,657 |
| 27 | Kentucky | 444 | $30,775 |
| 28 | Oklahoma | 432 | $31,957 |
| 29 | Alabama | 406 | $28,182 |
| 30 | Louisiana | 374 | $28,421 |
| 31 | Utah | 362 | $34,564 |
| 32 | Kansas | 354 | $31,416 |
| 33 | Maine | 332 | $36,615 |
| 34 | New Mexico | 292 | $32,714 |
| 35 | Nevada | 277 | $33,951 |
| 36 | Arkansas | 266 | $29,812 |
| 37 | Nebraska | 241 | $33,456 |
| 38 | New Hampshire | 231 | $35,934 |
| 39 | Mississippi | 201 | $33,289 |
| 40 | Idaho | 187 | $36,948 |
| 41 | South Dakota | 182 | $35,998 |
| 42 | West Virginia | 178 | $30,957 |
| 43 | Montana | 174 | $34,146 |
| 44 | Alaska | 142 | $49,998 |
| 45 | Rhode Island | 134 | $35,670 |
| 46 | Hawaii | 127 | $46,686 |
| 47 | Delaware | 126 | $36,248 |
| 48 | North Dakota | 123 | $36,553 |
| 49 | Vermont | 88 | $37,671 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 52 | $33,776 |
Top Skills For a Dental Receptionist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 35.4% of dental receptionists listed patients on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and computer skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Dental Receptionist Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Dental Receptionist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Dental Receptionist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Dental Receptionist Demographics
Dental Receptionist Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among dental receptionists, 95.1% of them are women, while 4.9% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among dental receptionists is White, which makes up 52.9% of all dental receptionists.
- The most common foreign language among dental receptionists is Spanish at 84.8%.
Online Courses For Dental Receptionist That You May Like
1. Introduction to Dental Medicine
The mouth is the window into human health. This course provides an overview of dental medicine to engage, educate, excite and assist you in improving the oral health of your patients and members of your community. We will review topics in dental medicine including scope of the field, what to expect in function, and some of the many ways that dysfunction may present for different patients. This will include discussions of mouth, jaw, and tooth anatomy, pathology, and treatment. We will talk...
See More on Coursera2. Patient Safety
Preventable patient harms, including medical errors and healthcare-associated complications, are a global public health threat. Moreover, patients frequently do not receive treatments and interventions known to improve their outcomes. These shortcomings typically result not from individual clinicians’ mistakes, but from systemic problems -- communication breakdowns, poor teamwork, and poorly designed care processes, to name a few.\n\nThe Patient Safety & Quality Leadership Specialization covers...
See More on Coursera3. PrEParing: PrEP for Providers and Patients
Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) using the antiretroviral medication emtricitibine/tenofovir approved in countries around the world is a highly effective means of reducing transmission of HIV through sexual encounters and needle sharing. This Johns Hopkins University course PrEPares you with essential information, concepts and practical advice regarding PrEP from leaders in the field. A first of its kind learning opportunity, both providers and patients learn from the same experts through...
See More on CourseraBest States For a Dental Receptionist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a dental receptionist. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, and Massachusetts. Dental receptionists make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $49,998. Whereas in Hawaii and Oregon, they would average $46,686 and $41,808, respectively. While dental receptionists would only make an average of $41,420 in Massachusetts, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Alaska
$49,998
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$41,393
Avg. Salary
3. Wisconsin
$40,985
Avg. Salary
How Do Dental Receptionist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Dental Receptionist Employers
Most Common Employers For Dental Receptionist
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Family Health Centers of Asheville | $36,945 | $17.76 | 9 |
| 2 | American Dental Association | $35,261 | $16.95 | 24 |
| 3 | Community Health Center | $34,825 | $16.74 | 10 |
| 4 | Elite Dental Partners | $33,492 | $16.10 | 9 |
| 5 | Western Dental | $33,361 | $16.04 | 22 |
| 6 | HealthPartners | $33,260 | $15.99 | 9 |
| 7 | Gentle Dental | $32,622 | $15.68 | 29 |
| 8 | Family Dental | $32,603 | $15.67 | 35 |
| 9 | Dental Dreams | $32,597 | $15.67 | 92 |
| 10 | Dr. Dental | $32,596 | $15.67 | 32 |
Dental Receptionist Videos
