How To Become A Dental Receptionist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a dental receptionist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

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.

ScoreDental ReceptionistUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,359

Avg. Salary $59,228

Diversity

7.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.85%

Asian 5.50%

Black or African American 9.45%

Hispanic or Latino 26.98%

Unknown 4.33%

White 52.89%

Gender

female 95.07%

male 4.93%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

7.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.7

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.4

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a dental receptionist

Explore dental receptionist education requirements

Most common dental receptionist degrees

High School Diploma

31.7 %

Associate

22.6 %

Bachelor's

18.5 %

Start to develop specific dental receptionist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	35.44%
Customer Service	17.12%
Phone Calls	10.30%
Patient Accounts	7.70%
Front Desk	3.49%

Complete relevant dental receptionist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New dental receptionists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a dental receptionist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real dental receptionist resumes.

Research dental receptionist duties and responsibilities

Manage an adjoining veterinary supply shop that sell medications, animal food and pet equipment.
Perform administrative and receptionist duties by managing patient records while staying in compliance with HIPAA and JCAHO.
Manage Eaglesoft system thereby maximizing and balancing the calendar of appointments to drive practice revenue while maintaining optimal practice productivity.
Assist office management and staff with administrative projects/responsibilities such as managing time-sensitive projects, filing, copying, and collating materials.

Prepare your dental receptionist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your dental receptionist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a dental receptionist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable dental receptionist resume templates

Build a professional dental receptionist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your dental receptionist resume.