Dental Assistant Outlook and Salary Information

Our teeth are in the best shape ever, which opens up tremendous career opportunities for licensed dental assistants. Americans are living longer, and taking better care of their teeth. Therefore, more patients are lining up for checkups and maintenance visits at their dentists’ offices every year. Unable to keep up with the demand on their own, many dentists have hired record numbers of dental assistants to pick up the slack.

According to recent government surveys, the demand for dental assistants shows no sign of letting up. In every community, a scan of the want ads reveals plenty of job openings for graduates of certified dental assistant programs.

With only a high school diploma and a one-year training program, you can earn a starting wage of over nine dollars per hour in many dental practices. As you gain experience, you can expect your salary to rise to an average of about fourteen dollars per hour. In communities with the most demand, experienced dental assistants command hourly wages of twenty dollars or more.

In an era when most wage earners struggle with finding health benefits, dental assistants enjoy some tremendous perks. Most dental practices offer health insurance as part of their benefits packages. In addition, dentists traditionally extend full dental coverage to every member of a dental assistant’s family.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects jobs for dental assistants to grow faster than the average for all other jobs over the next ten years. With great wages, job stability, and remarkable benefits, a career as a dental assistant can be a wonderful choice.

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Dental Assistant Career Information

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