If you’re considering a career as a dental assistant, one of your top considerations is your initial and ongoing salary. There are a variety of factors that have a significant impact on how much you can make as a DA. Below we outline how to command the highest starting salary and how to accelerate your raise cycle.
Factors That Influence a Dental Assistant’s Salary
There are 5 key factors that will impact how much you can earn. Understanding these factors helps you guide your career path and maximize your earning potential.
- Initial Education—dental assistants who seek formal education typically start at $4 more per hour.
- Continuing Education—if you seek Expanded Duties Dental Assistant (EDDA) training you can make another $1 to $2 per hour.
- Experience—like most positions, you’ll make a lower salary to begin with and more with tenure.
- Practice location—in addition to nationwide salary averages, each state and city has a salary range.
- Practice type—you will typically make more money if you work in a specialty dental practice.
What Are Specialty Dental Practices?
Specialty dental practices most often hire tenured DAs. In addition to your hard skills, they prioritize the soft skills that align with the demographic they serve. For example, you must be patient and excellent with children to work in a pediatric dental clinic.
Specialty dental practices include:
- Oral surgery
- Cosmetic dentistry
- Restorative dentistry
- Orthodontics
- Pediatric dentistry
- Geriatric dentistry
Do I Have to Go to School To Become a Dental Assistant?
Each state’s education and certification requirements vary. In the state of Colorado, there is no formal certification process. Dental practices are allowed to provide supervised hands-on training for DAs who don’t go to school. However, hands-on training is an expense, and few practices will invest the time.
While certification isn’t required, most practices prefer candidates who’ve sought education from an accredited school. Formal education doesn’t just make your application stand out, it allows you to command up to $4 per hour more in your starting salary.
With 2 weeks off per year, $4 more per hour totals:
- $160 per week
- $640 per month
- $8,000 per year
Factor in annual raises and investing in education adds up quickly in your favor.
What Is the Average Dental Assisting Salary in Colorado?
According to Indeed, the starting salary for dental assistants in Colorado is around $16.80 per hour. The median salary is $21 to $22 per hour. With EDDA training, the median salary rises to closer to $23 per hour and maxes out at $29 per hour with tenure.
By city, as of 2021, Dental Post found the average salary by city to be:
- $45,370 in Boulder
- $40,330 in Colorado Springs
- $45,780 in Denver
- $46,610 in Fort Collins
- $38,460 in Grand Junction
- $37,260 in Greeley
- $39,450 in Pueblo
What Is EDDA Training?
Expanded Duty Dental Assisting is a form of education you can seek any time after your initial training. EDDA training provides a positive professional challenge. It empowers you to perform additional job duties, delivering more value for your dental practice.
Standard DA job duties include:
- Ensuring patients are comfortable before and during their treatments.
- Patient intake, blood pressure, and pulse.
- Taking and developing x-rays.
- Completing dental pantographs.
- Providing patients with follow-up care instructions.
- Assisting the dentist and hygienist during treatments.
- Infection control and sterilization.
- Clerical and administrative tasks.
Expanded duties DA job duties include:
- The standard job duties above.
- Applying multiple techniques of Pit and Fissure Sealants.
- Fluoride Application.
- Placing multiple methods of isolation techniques for restorative dentistry of Matrix Systems.
- Place, condense, carve, finish, and polish Amalgam and Composite Restorations.
- Trim and polish intermediate crowns and bridges.
- Place temporary crowns and bridges.
Do Dental Assistants Have Good Benefits?
In addition to your salary, your new career typically comes with a competitive range of benefits, including:
- Quality health insurance
- Discounted dental care
- A 401K retirement plan
- Paid sick days
- Paid vacation time
Ready to Choose the Start Date for Your DA Education?
If you’ve decided that dental assisting is right for you, we invite you to consider a tour at the American Institute of Dental Assisting. In addition to being licensed by the Colorado Department of Higher Education, we provide hands-on training in a live dental clinic. This real-world experience gives you a competitive advantage and isn’t something included in most DA curriculum.
Our Dental Assisting Program is 13 weeks long with an additional 7 weeks of training if you complete your EDDA Training directly afterward. Many of our students continue to work full-time, which is why we have convenient evening and weekend classes.