There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an orthodontic assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $37.52 an hour? That's $78,037 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 38,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many orthodontic 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 technical skills, communication skills and leadership skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an orthodontic assistant, we found that a lot of resumes listed 17.3% of orthodontic assistants included patient care, while 7.6% of resumes included dental procedures, and 6.6% of resumes included hipaa. 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 orthodontic assistant job title. But what industry to start with? Most orthodontic assistants actually find jobs in the professional and health care industries.
If you're interested in becoming an orthodontic assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 19.5% of orthodontic assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.2% of orthodontic assistants have master's degrees. Even though some orthodontic 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 orthodontic assistant. When we researched the most common majors for an orthodontic assistant, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on orthodontic assistant resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an orthodontic assistant. In fact, many orthodontic assistant jobs require experience in a role such as dental assistant. Meanwhile, many orthodontic assistants also have previous career experience in roles such as cashier or sales associate.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
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 orthodontic assistant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as dental hygienist, progress to a title such as clinical instructor and then eventually end up with the title clinical manager.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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 Orthodontic 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 Orthodontic Assistant Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Orthodontic 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 InformationThe 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, 17.3% of orthodontic assistants listed patient care on their resume, but soft skills such as technical skills and communication skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an orthodontic assistant. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada, and California. Orthodontic assistants make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $95,227. Whereas in Oregon and Nevada, they would average $71,542 and $69,401, respectively. While orthodontic assistants would only make an average of $68,290 in California, 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. Oregon
$71,543
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$63,512
Avg. Salary
3. Alaska
$61,456
Avg. Salary