An oral surgery assistant works in an oral surgeon's office. They generally provide support to an oral surgeon by assisting them with prior preparation for medical procedures, preparation of equipment before the surgery, preparing patients for the surgery, follow-up care, and administrative duties such as scheduling patient appointments and maintaining patient records.
Oral surgery assistants usually work in clinics, hospitals, universities, or government agencies. They work closely with patients to ensure they are comfortable. A successful oral surgery assistant should have organizational skills, computer skills, listening skills, administration skills, attention to detail, and communication skills.
Oral surgery assistants work full time. They typically work in shifts and are expected to be on call when their services may be needed. In private practice, their work schedule is often based on patients' scheduled appointments.
Oral Surgery Assistant Overview
Oral Surgery Assistant Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an oral surgery assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $114.22 an hour? That's $237,569 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 38,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Oral Surgery Assistant Do
There are certain skills that many oral surgery assistants 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 dexterity, listening skills and organizational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an oral surgery assistant, we found that a lot of resumes listed 21.5% of oral surgery assistants included patient care, while 20.3% of resumes included infection control, and 9.0% of resumes included dental services. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the oral surgery assistant job title. But what industry to start with? Most oral surgery assistants actually find jobs in the health care and professional industries.
How To Become an Oral Surgery Assistant
If you're interested in becoming an oral surgery assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 15.5% of oral surgery assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.8% of oral surgery assistants have master's degrees. Even though some oral surgery assistants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an oral surgery assistant. When we researched the most common majors for an oral surgery assistant, we found that they most commonly earn associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on oral surgery assistant resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an oral surgery assistant. In fact, many oral surgery assistant jobs require experience in a role such as dental assistant. Meanwhile, many oral surgery assistants also have previous career experience in roles such as dental assistant/receptionist or assistant.
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Oral Surgery Assistant 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, an oral surgery assistant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as surgical assistant, progress to a title such as registered nurse and then eventually end up with the title nurse manager.
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Average Salary for an Oral Surgery Assistant
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Smile Brands Traveling Oral Surgery Assistant Traveling Oral Surgery Assistant | Smile Brands Smile Brands | 12/24/2020 12/24/2020 | $41,74012/24/2020 $41,740 |
Avery Partners Oral Surgery Assistant Oral Surgery Assistant | Avery Partners Avery Partners | 04/16/2020 04/16/2020 | $33,39204/16/2020 $33,392 |
Aspen Dental Oral Surgery Assistant Oral Surgery Assistant | Aspen Dental Aspen Dental | 10/20/2019 10/20/2019 | $37,56610/20/2019 $37,566 |
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Oral Surgery Assistant Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming an Oral Surgery Assistant. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write an Oral Surgery Assistant Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Oral Surgery Assistant resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Skills For an Oral Surgery Assistant
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, 21.5% of oral surgery assistants listed patient care on their resume, but soft skills such as dexterity and listening skills are important as well.
- Patient Care, 21.5%
- Infection Control, 20.3%
- Dental Services, 9.0%
- Chair Side, 8.5%
- Dental Procedures, 5.9%
- Other Skills, 34.8% See All Oral Surgery Assistant Skills
How Do Oral Surgery Assistant Rate Their Jobs?
Top Oral Surgery Assistant Employers
Oral Surgery Assistant Videos
