Dental assistants earn a competitive salary assisting licensed dentists. The American Dental Association accredits dental assistant schools and training programs. There are a few hundred such programs in the United States and Canada.
Those interested in dental assisting jobs may be interested to know that there were close to 300,000 of these jobs in May of 2010. The median salary of these dental assistants was about $34,000. These statistics were compiled by the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To get a job in this large employment category, individuals generally attend an accredited dental assistant school. These dentist assisting programs last around one year, but there are also some associate degrees in dental assisting that take two years to obtain.
The Commission on Dental Accreditation, which is affiliated with the American Dental Association, accredits places like community and junior colleges that run their own dental assistant school programs. As of 2011, there are around 300 of these schools in the United States.
To find these accrediting schools, you may use the database on the American Dental Association website. There is a link to the database in the Resources section at the end of this article. Choose “Dental Assisting” as the program type and either run a search for all states or pick one state at a time to narrow your search.
Notes on Online and Vocational Schools:
Some online schools and traditional vocational schools also offer programs in dental assisting. These could provide a quality education, but they are not accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation and the American Dental Association.
Because there is generally no legal requirement to get any kind of training or education or license for dental assistants, you might find a job after attending one of these dental assistant schools. However, get as much information as possible about their career assistance department and placement success rate before attending such a dental assisting school. In particular, graduates of online schools may have difficult marketing their training to dentists hiring for dental assistant jobs.
Resources:
American Dental Association: Database of Accredited Dental Assistant Schools
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Dental Assistants Career Information
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Dental Assistants Education and Job Information