Orthodontist Assistants have a wide range of duties within an orthodontists office. They assist the orthodontist by sterilizing the dental tools before each, and help to make sure the patients are comfortable while the orthodontist tends to their oral care.
They play a supportive role within the office, as their duties include: assisting the orthodontist whenever needed, educating patients, as well as interviewing patients to inform them of what they should do prior to and after receiving orthodontic care. It is a rewarding profession, which requires training and a degree in the field, with a high potential for increase salary with experience in the field.
According to PayScale, a site which specializes in providing salary figures for professions nationwide, an orthodontist assistant salary can range anywhere from $12,000 to $49,087 annually, with an hourly wage falling between $10.70 to $20.58, all depending upon your location and the number of years you have worked within the field. For those who have less than 1 year of experience, the hourly wage typically ranges from $8.93 to $14.96, while those who have been an orthodontist assistant for more 20 years or more can expect to earn $15.27 to $23.95 per hour.
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Though the training required to become a dentist can be quite extensive and time consuming, choosing this profession allows for you to make a good living while helping your patients with their oral hygiene and improving their self confidence by helping them to achieve a healthy smile. There are a number of things you must do before you are able to to place the DDS after your name, however. These are the steps you must take to receive degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery:
- Begin by preparing for your future dental career while you are still in high school. While still in high school, you may find it beneficial to take courses which related to the dentistry field, such as health, mathematics, biology, and physics. Consult with your guidance counselor to find out if there are pre-dental programs which can help you to be better prepared. Maintaing a high grade point average is key, and sending away for college applications or finding them online and submitting them early will ensure that you meet the deadline date.
- Earn a Bachelor’s Degree. You do not have to necessarily major in science, though it is recommended. There are a number of pre-dental science courses that you are encouraged to complete while earning your Bachelor’s Degree, such as chemistry and physics, amongst other choices.
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If you’ve researched various dental hygienist programs after deciding that a dental career is something you’d enjoy, there are a few things that you should know before you enroll. Choosing the program that’s right for you can provide you with the skills and experience that you need to embark upon this exciting and rewarding career path with a high earnings potential.
Here is a brief guide on what to know before you enroll:
Prerequisites for dental hygienist programs – Every program has its own set of enrollment guidelines and requirements. However, a majority of them make it necessary for you to have a high school diploma or GED (with a minimum C average), you must be at least 18 years of age, and you must have taken a college entrance exam and have proof of your scores. Most dental hygienist schools prefer that you have some college experience, but often do not make it a requirement.
Subjects covered – You will receive classroom training, as well as clinical and laboratory instruction. The following subjects are usually part of any dental hygienist program: biology, nutrition, anatomy, radiography, pharmacology, periodontology, clinical dental hygiene, histology, and microbiology, amongst others. Along with these more specialized areas of study, you will typically be required to take courses in basic studies, such as speech and English, as well.
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I found an interesting article over at The Student Doctor today about medical student salary expectations, and wanted to post a summary of the article.
SDN conducted a series of polls to find out if medical students had a general understanding of the salaries they can expect once they graduate. Users were asked to select a salary range for most medical professions “without doing internet research” to find an answer. SDN has an extensive poll archive showing the response to all the questionnaire’s they’ve conducted.
Other than for Dentists and Optometrists, students accurately picked the salary range that falls into the mean wages for medical professionals . Wages used were published on the 2007 Bureau of Labor Statistics website.
The Optometrist profession was underestimated, while the Dental profession was overestimated. However, for both professions, salary expectations were very close to the breaking point of the actual salary range, and a majority of respondents selected either the correct range or the next closest range.
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The process of writing a dental assistant resume that leads to a job interview is the same in the dental field as any other industry. Whether you’ve just graduated from your dental assistant training program – or perhaps you’ve been dental assisting for awhile and just want to work in a different office? This article will explain how to write a clear and concise, yet comprehensive resume and cover letter that will get the attention of even the most hard to impress dentist offices.
But first, let’s shatter a few myths that have been flying around about how to write a resume. Following the conventional resume writing rules, such as, keeping your resume to one page, or to use a certain format, which font to use, etc will most likely make the hiring dentist gloss it over and look for something that is unique, stands out a little more and says “give me a call and schedule an interview”. Resume’s are as unique as the individuals they represent; and as such, should accomplish exactly what you want while being appropriate for the position you’re looking for.
One mistake many people make when preparing their dental assistant resume is to simply explain their history and experience if applicable. While that should be the focus on much of your resume, a better approach is to view the resume as a strategic marketing tool that will solicit interest in you and persuade a dental office to hire you.
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A common question for most students aspiring to be a dentist is about the pay structure. Dentists are considered to be the highest paid professionals. Most dentists are self employed and do not have a salary structure, while some choose to be employed with hospitals and have a fixed pay structure. The net income of a self employed dentist is what they earn after deducting all overhead charges.
The net income of a dentist varies with each dentist, their experience level, specialization, and also geographical location. A dentist’s salary also can be influenced by shortage of dentists in a specific area. Statistics show that there are more dentists retiring than dental schools are producing. With the increase in population across the globe, the need for a dentist is strong despite the economically turbulent times we are sailing in.
A dentist’s basic job includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities.
- Extracting teeth
- Polishing teeth
- Providing root canal treatments
- Taking impressions of gums and teeth and fitting dentures
- Using X-rays if needed to determine condition of patient’s teeth and gums
A dentist who has a practice of his own may earn considerably more than one who is employed with an organization. The same goes with a dentist who has a specialized degree like orthodontics or maxillofacial surgery, who is bound to earn more. The average expected salary for a dentist in the United States is about $187,000 a year on 4 days a week plus added fringe benefits. This average includes new graduates as well. Experienced doctors in private practices earn as much as $1000 per day.
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In this article, I’d like to talk about how to improve your odds of being accepted into the dental school you desire to attend, specifically, what to include in your recommendation letters to make a favorable impression on the admissions personnel, and even set yourself apart from the crowd.
You may think that recommendation letters are just an insignificant formality for securing a dental school acceptance letter, but by putting yourself in the school’s position, every detail of the acceptance process can be scrutinized, and recommendation letters that have impact can go much further toward being accepted than one would think.
In today’s competitive environment, every opportunity to gain the upper hand during the admissions process should be maximized toward your benefit. Here is a question I saw in a dental forum recently–this is what the prospective dental student asked, word for word.
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The healthcare industry is one of the most lucrative options for job seekers in these recessionary times. To be an orthodontist’s assistant you need to have a degree from community college or high school diploma and some on-the-job training will be a lot of help. Responsibilities and duties of an orthodontist assistant include a number of office and laboratory duties along with patients care and consultation.
Responsibilities and Duties
Managing patients before, during and after the orthodontic treatment is basically the job of orthodontist assistant. They act as the second pair of eyes and hands for the orthodontist. The job includes fixing appointments, managing orthodontist’s schedule, patient care, preparing the working station, sterilizing and instruments care.
Further, orthodontist assistant’s prepare patients for the procedure and usually administer anesthesia. Managing the clinic and dental records of the patients, dental insurance claims are also additional duties. Orthodontist assistant laboratory duties include preparing study models, wire bendings, soldering orthodontic bands and making customized oral appliances and retainers.
They prepare the patient and assist orthodontists during the procedure and play an indispensable role in a number of ways. Below are some examples of the job listings for orthodontist’s assistant posted online.
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When trying to learn a new skill, and especially when pursuing a particular vocation such as a dental career, traditional education and book smarts can only get you so far. By far my favorite way to learn a new skill set is to do what Tony Robbins calls “modeling” of other mentors who have already experienced success or have significant experience with whatever it is you’d like to do.
So with this in mind, I’m going to start a new series of articles consisting of interviews of various people currently working in the dental field, preferably those who carry positions as dentists, hygienists, assistants, dental therapists, orthodontists, and other dental positions. The goal is to give readers an in-depth understanding of the day to day practices of these professions, and a general sense of what the subject career is like from the inside.
However, since I haven’t gotten a chance to solicit any interviews yet, I thought I’d just remark on some articles of this type that I’ve found elsewhere online. I was able to find this interview with Dr. Michael Roberts, DDS by Juliet Farmer in The Student Doctor.
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You may have greeted your local dental receptionist on the way to the dental office the last time that you needed a filling, but have you ever wondered what exactly is a normal dental receptionist job description? Contrary to popular belief, a dental receptionist does a lot of work that a normal receptionist simply does not do. If you have been considering switching careers, becoming a dental receptionist might be an interesting consideration.
Dental receptionists perform many duties in the course of an average day, including: answering phone calls, filing, keeping the office tidy, and also developing a rapport with clients. However, they also might have to answer questions that most receptionists won’t have to answer. These kinds of questions include dental referral questions, insurance questions, and medical billing questions. In some cases, a dental receptionist might need to stay after hours in order to help sweep the floor of the dental office. Maintaining the office’s cleanliness usually is one of the roles of the receptionist.
There are certain people who take to being a dental receptionist like a duck to water. Because of the fact that dental receptionists are almost always dealing with people, social butterflies do very well in this line of work. However, a social person who is disorganized or clumsy with paperwork will not be able to do everything in a dental receptionist job description well. It also should be noted that a good dental receptionist should be able to work in a very high pressure, fast paced environment. The ideal candidate for a dental receptionist career is a person who is organized, very professional in appearance, great with people, and also very patient. After all, clients can be a bit difficult once in a while!
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