Dental Assistant Resume Guide + Tips + Example

Dayle Kavonic
By Dayle Kavonic, Career Advice ExpertRated 4.2/5 Stars
Last Updated: October 17, 2023
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On the hunt for a job as a dental assistant? To land a great position, you will need a strong dental assistant resume. Not sure where to start? We can help! Use our guide to create a compelling resume for a dental assistant role and win hiring managers over with your excellent scheduling, records management and dental radiography skills.

Dental Assistant Resume Template Customize this resume

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Sample resume for a dental assistant (text version)

Beth Gifford

New Rochelle, NY 10538
(555) 555-5555
example@example.com

Summary Statement

Amiable dental assistant with over two years of experience in a private dental office. Skilled at taking dental X-rays, preparing dental impressions and assisting dental hygienists and dentists. Able to schedule routine procedures, maintain patient records and develop a playful rapport with my regular patients.

Professional Skills

  • Scheduling
  • Fully trained in booking and maintaining appointments through various scheduling tools, including Luma Health, Appointment Plus, Acuity
  • Scheduling and Booker.
  • Confirm and update appointments for an average of 45 patients a day.
  • Maintain and organize the professional schedules for three dentists at a private practice, ensuring that no professional is double-booked and reducing patient wait times by 13%.
  • Organization
  • Update records of dental treatments in electronic and paper form to ensure full coverage of patient information.
  • Keep 200 records of dental treatments and X-rays as they occur, ensuring optimal patient care and follow-up treatments.
  • Reorganized the supply closet to increase access to necessary safety equipment and protective covers.
  • Sterile Preparation
  • Prepare patients and work areas for treatments and procedures by laying out sterile bips, swabs, suction hoses, curing lights and surgical tools.
  • Sterilize all dental instruments and procedure locations, ensuring timely procedures and reducing appointment delays.
  • Prepared treatment rooms for patients by following prescribed protocols and procedures.

Work History

August 2019 – Current
ABC Dental Practice – New Rochelle, NY
Dental Assistant

July 2018 – September 2019
Eastern Dental – White Plains, NY
Dental Intern

Summary of Qualifications

  • Give full attention to patients to ensure they are comfortable from registration through to the procedure.
  • Keep confidential patient files that are well-organized, thorough and securely stored.
  • Fully trained in rigorous cleaning and sterilization procedures to ensure a clean and safe environment for both dentists and patients.

Education

May 2019
The College of Westchester White Plains, NY
Associate of Science Dental Assisting

5 essentials of a top dental assistant resume

  1. Contact details

    Add your contact information to the top of your resume so prospective employers can contact you for an interview. As our example of a dental assistant resume shows, your contact information must include your full name, city, state and ZIP code, phone number and professional email address. If you have a LinkedIn profile, add this last.  

  2. Personal statement

    A personal statement, also known as a professional summary, is a concise, three-to-five-sentence statement that tells the hiring manager who you are and what you can offer. Your dental assistant resume summary must include job-relevant skills and one or two notable accomplishments. It should also touch on how long you’ve been working as a dental assistant. If you are applying for your first job or changing careers, use a dental assistant resume objective instead.

  3. Skills

    Create a compelling dental assistant resume skills section so employers can see if your skill set matches their needs. Add your job-relevant skills to a bulleted list, making them easy to scan. It is best to include both hard and soft skills, such as sterilization for infection control and communication. If this is the first time you are applying for a dental assistant role, include transferable skills from other pursuits.

  4. Work history

    Whether this is your first job or you’ve been at it for decades, a dental assistant resume must include a section to display your job history. In reverse-chronological order, list your current and previous employers and provide practice names, locations and the dates you worked for them. Include three bullet points of measurable achievements for every job you list.

  5. Education

    As you can see in our sample dental assistant resume, it’s important to include an education section in your resume, whether or not you have a degree. In reverse-chronological order, use bullet points to display the schools’ names and the years you graduated. If you did not attend college, list your high school information and any courses or training you’ve completed since finishing.

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Do’s and don’ts for building a dental assistant resume

  • Use measurable achievements to describe your dental assistant skills and experience.
  • Use action words to add impact to your dental assistant resume.
  • Tailor your resume to your target dental assistant job.
  • Use keywords from the job description throughout your dental assistant resume.
  • Format your dental assistant resume so that it is easy to read by ATS software and human eyes.
  • Lie about your dental assistant experience and skills.
  • Boast that you are the “most competent dental assistant in the city.”
  • Include irrelevant personal information, such as your ethnicity and age.
  • Add skills and experience that are not relevant to a dental assistant role.
  • Forget to proofread. A dental assistant resume with errors is unprofessional.

Top 4 tips for acing a dental assistant interview

  1. Research.

    It is vital to take the time to learn about the dental office’s history, goals, values and people before the interview. Doing so conveys interest, passion and commitment—traits that can set you above the competition.

  2. Practice.

    Practice does make perfect. To prepare for your interview, start by reviewing the most common interview questions, such as: 

    Write down two or three possible answers for each question, then practice answering them with a friend or family member.

  3. Ask questions.

    Always have at least three questions for each person you speak with during the interview process. Doing so shows that you are genuinely interested in the role and have been paying close attention.

    Some questions you might ask for a dental assistant job are:

    • What would a typical day look like for a dental assistant here?
    • What is the workflow like here and how do the dental assistant’s responsibilities fit into that workflow?
    • Can you tell me more about the practice’s values, priorities and approach to patient care?
  4. Prepare references.

    Have professional references ready before your interview — you never know if the hiring manager might want to contact them immediately. Ask a former supervisor and two former colleagues who can speak about your performance as a dental assistant and who you are confident will give you a stellar review. 

    If you’re new to the working world and don’t have former coworkers for reference, you can get contacts from a former college professor or instructor, volunteer coordinator, internship manager, classmate or community leader who will provide positive feedback about your ability to perform the job.

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