Dental assistants with more experience and more credentials tend to earn more per hour than those who are new to the field. For example, dental assistants with expanded functions (EFDA) tend to earn more because they have taken on additional responsibilities and can perform additional functions in the dental office. Like RDA, it can also sterilize equipment, instruct patients on good oral hygiene, take and develop x-rays, and help dentists during dental treatments. A dental assistant with expanded functions (EFDA) performs functions beyond what many consider “traditional”, and each state defines what these functions are.
Your earning potential as a dental assistant is influenced by many factors, such as where you live, the experience you have, and the type of office you work in. Dental assistants generally prepare equipment and supplies for the dentist before an exam or procedures, clean and sterilize equipment after the patient appointment, take and process x-rays, and update patient documentation. Read on for a full breakdown of where dental assistants make the most money and where they earn the least. Other functions of a surgical dental assistant include the use of suction hoses, delivering the dentist's instruments during the operation, and educating patients about oral hygiene.
To better understand the payment of dental assistants by state, Zipia has aggregated data across a multitude of channels, including BLS, FLC and OPM. And while there's a lot to discuss about how much you can expect to earn, there's great data on the average salaries of dental assistants by state in the United States, broken down by seniority level. The allowed expanded roles and dental assistant job titles vary by state, but some examples of expanded role credentials you might obtain are EFDA, RDAEF, or EDDA, to name a few. Orthodontic assistants help provide patient care and treatment to correct dental problems and straighten teeth.
In addition to these tasks, you provide administrative assistance in the dental office, including filing medical records, answering phones, and scheduling appointments. Finally, the data science team calculates a weighted average of these inputs to create an average salary for dental assistants by state. Using occupational data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we have analyzed and compiled a summary of the average salary of a dental assistant by state in the United States. The functions of a certified dental assistant depend on the type of office in which you work and the regulations and licenses required by your state.
