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How to Hire Dental Assistants
A guide to help you hire top dental assistants
People are going to the dentist considerably more frequently as a result of mounting evidence linking tooth decay to major diseases including heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
As a result, dental assistants are in high demand, and it can be difficult to locate one who possesses both technical expertise and a commitment to providing excellent patient care.
In dentistry, licensed dental assistants provide critical support functions. Excellent dental assistants may be located on both general job posting websites and employment boards for dentists.
Hiring a Dental Assistant
How to locate top-notch dental assistants for your dental practice, step by step. Consists of a thorough recruiting procedure that will aid you in finding and hiring the top dental assistants quickly.
1. Create a work description that is ideal for a dental assistant
- Promote the advantages of your dental clinic to dental assistants.
You should give careful consideration to how you announce the opening for a dental assistant. Sell them on your dentistry office’s values and mission statement. What do you have to give them? A jovial and friendly workplace? Satisfying work? great health advantages
You’ll be able to recruit dental assistants that desire to change the world by going above and beyond the minimal criteria for a job description.
- Make it simpler by using a sample job description for a dental assistant.
Utilize a dental assistant job description template to help simplify the process by providing most of the boilerplate information you’ll need, such duties and requirements.
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2. Advertise your job on many websites
- At general-interest websites like Indeed, post your job.
Start by placing a job posting on generic job sites like Indeed. Since they are free and they receive a lot of traffic, this is a wonderful place to start.
- Gain Google’s attention for your work.
Your job ad might be shown in search results thanks to Google for Jobs. This can significantly improve your ability to find work. By having it correctly structured on your website or by employing a service that generates a properly designed jobs page for you automatically, you may get it picked up by Google.
- Look for job boards specifically for dental professionals.
This will limit your search to dental professionals. To post job openings and hire a dental assistant, use a job board for dental professionals.
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3. Invest on chances for professional advancement
- Join forces with universities to hire dentistry students
Some dentists choose to teach their dental assistants right out of college or straight out of high school.
- Start by focusing on the dental schools in the area of your office.
- Ask about developing a relationship by getting in touch with the campus career services offices of each institution.
- Inquire about visiting employment fairs on campus.
- Ask the campus job center how to set up an internship program for dental assistants with their institution.
- Look for job boards specifically for dental professionals.
This will limit your search to dental professionals. To post job openings and hire a dental assistant, use a job board for dental professionals.
- Invest on chances for professional advancement.
Join forces with universities to hire dentistry students.
Some dentists choose to teach their dental assistants right out of college or straight out of high school.
- Start by focusing on the dental schools in the area of your office.
- Ask about developing a relationship by getting in touch with the campus career services offices of each institution.
- Inquire about visiting employment fairs on campus.
- Ask the campus job center how to set up an internship program for dental assistants with their institution.
- During college employment fairs, advertise your internship.
- Interviewing and choosing candidates you believe have potential
- Give their internship the same respect you would any job. Provide resources to them, give them a thorough onboarding, and create a sense of care for them.
- Make sure the internship is organized correctly and highlight the educational advantages. Provide tasks and daily obligations, as well as explicit learning objectives and goals. Among these are helping dentists clean teeth, taking X-rays, sanitizing equipment, overseeing administrative tasks, and more.
- Decide on a period of time equal to a semester.
- Promote your interns as spokespersons who highlight the advantages of a dental assistant internship with you.
- Ask your interns to recommend you to other highly regarded college students.
- Assuming their internship is successful, give your interns the opportunity for full employment.
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4. Examine potential dental assistant candidates
- Email the screening questions
Individuals frequently apply despite not reading the job criteria. Send a brief email with a few simple questions to weed out the unqualified candidates, such as:
- How many years have you been a dental assistant?
- When did you receive your Dental Assisting National Body (DANB) certification?
- Do you have any weekend openings?
Hence, they can’t just disregard your inquiries. You could want to attempt assigning someone to make brief phone calls to your candidates to ask these questions if you’re concerned that they won’t respond to an email.
Visit the DANB website and look up the candidate’s social security number in the database to confirm that they have been approved by the organization.
- Conduct background investigations
When you’ve selected a smaller group of candidates, you must do background checks to confirm information such as their job history, application information, criminal record, and more.
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5. Organize interviews
- Phone interviews are conducted
Everyone engaged needs a lot of time for in-person interviews. Short phone interviews may be scheduled, and you can find out right away which applicants deserve more of your time.
Check the candidates’ responses to the screening questions to determine whether they are consistent, see if their expectations for pay and benefits align with yours, and learn why they left their prior employer.
Examples of queries
- What drew you to the dental profession?
- Why did you quit your prior position as a dental assistant?
- What sort of pay and perks are you anticipating?
- What days of the week are you able to work?
- If you could, when would that be?
- What drew you to this position?
Consider this process an opportunity to spot warning signs. The candidate won’t fit well if they left their former employment due to problems that you are aware would exist in the position you are giving, such as needing to work weekends. The same applies if they seek a pay rate that’s too high or if they can’t work within your regular company hours.
Consider reviewing the highlights of accepting the position with any prospects who currently fit your qualifications and asking them if they have any more questions. Although they could be considering alternative offers, keep pitching the position.
Pay attention to their motivations for applying for the position, and then emphasize the aspects of it that most appeal to them.
- Interview the candidate in person.
Now, you have the most of the information you need to determine whether a candidate is a good match for your business, but a face-to-face interview will allow you to learn more about the prospect’s reliability and how well they’ll get along with the rest of your employees.
The opportunity to keep pitching them the job is more crucial. Show them around the office, introduce them to coworkers, go over their qualifications for the position, and go over the perks you have to offer.
When you probe their capacity to demonstrate compassion and attitude toward patient care, your inquiries should measure their familiarity with various administrative and procedural chores.
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6. Bring on a new dental assistant
- Create a deal
You know where to look for dental assistants that match your practice, so you’ll want to extend an offer to them immediately to get them off the market before another employer does. The easiest way to handle this is frequently to start with a casual phone conversation, followed by a letter or email that includes the job description as well as details about pay and benefits.
- Please welcome your new dental assistant
A crucial last stage in the recruiting process that should not be missed is onboarding. Having a thorough and well-organized onboarding process can help you make a good first impression and get your new recruit up and running quickly.
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FAQs:
Is it challenging to find dental assistants?
It might be difficult, but not impossible, to find the perfect dental assistant who possesses both the patient-care and technical skill attributes. Start your search on specialist employment sites, and as you go, narrow down your prospect pool.
What abilities are required of dental assistants?
understanding of numerous orthodontic techniques.
good hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
outstanding organizing abilities.
strong communication abilities.
Excellent interpersonal abilities and a dedication to patient care.
