As a pediatric dental assistant, crafting your resume to effectively showcase your child-friendly communication skills and dental procedure expertise can be a daunting challenge. Our guide offers detailed advice and targeted examples to help you highlight your unique qualifications, ensuring your application stands out to potential employers.
- Sample industry-leading examples to learn how to write your best resume yet.
- Improve the experience, education, and achievements section of your resume with insights from resume-writing professionals.
- Curate your technical expertise and personality to stand out amongst the pool of candidates.
- Succinctly focus on your unique skill set all through your pediatric dental assistant resume.
If the pediatric dental assistant resume isn't the right one for you, take a look at other related guides we have:
Don't stress out over your pediatric dental assistant resume format
Remember, the elaborate design of your pediatric dental assistant resume isn't what impresses recruiters most. They are primarily searching for candidates who meet the job requirements. The main aim of your resume should be to clearly and concisely explain why employers should hire you.
Here are four straightforward steps to consider in your pediatric dental assistant resume design:
- Organize your resume based on experience: Start with your most recent roles. Besides using reverse chronological order, choose jobs relevant to the position you're applying for.
- Include your contact details (and portfolio or LinkedIn link) in your resume's header to ensure recruiters can easily reach you. If considering adding a professional photo, check acceptable practices in different countries first.
- Don't omit essential pediatric dental assistant resume sections such as the summary or objective, experience, and education. These sections should reflect your career progression and align with job requirements.
- Maintain conciseness in your resume. For those with less than ten years of experience, a one-page format is advisable.
Regarding the format to submit your pediatric dental assistant resume, PDF is preferable. PDFs are more likely to maintain their formatting when processed through recruitment software or ATS, saving you time in the application process.
When selecting a font for your pediatric dental assistant resume, consider the following:
- Choose ATS-friendly fonts such as Exo 2, Volkhov, Lato, etc., to keep your resume's content legible;
- All serif and sans-serif fonts are easily readable by ATS;
- While Arial and Times New Roman are common choices, opting for unique typography can help your resume stand out.
Concerned about ATS compatibility with charts and infographics? Our recent study has debunked this and other myths.
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PRO TIP
List all your relevant higher education degrees within your resume in reverse chronological order (starting with the latest). There are cases when your PhD in a particular field could help you stand apart from other candidates.
Recruiters' preferred pediatric dental assistant resume sections:
- A header with relevant contact information and headline, listing your current job title
- A resume summary or objective pinpointing what is most impressive about your expertise (that aligns with the role)
- An experience section highlighting the specifics of your responsibilities and achievements
- A skills sidebar to intertwine job advert keywords with your unique talents
- An education and certifications sections to serve as further accreditation to your professional experience
What recruiters want to see on your resume:
- Experience with behavior management techniques suitable for young patients
- Knowledge of pediatric dental procedures and chairside assistance
- Skills in preparing and maintaining child-friendly environments
- Ability to communicate effectively with children and parents
- Understanding of dental growth and development in children
The pediatric dental assistant resume experience section: a roadmap to your expertise
The resume experience section provides you with an opportunity to tell your professional narrative.
Recruiters, reading between the lines of your resume, use the experience section to better understand your unique skill set, accomplishments, and what unique value you bring about.
Discover five quick steps on how to write your experience section:
- Curate only relevant experience items to the role and include the company, description, and dates; all followed by up to six bullets per experience item;
- Each experience item should feature tangible results of your actions - if you can include a number or percent, this will further highlight your aptitude;
- If you've received any managerial or customer feedback, use short excerpts of it as further social proof of your technical or people skills;
- Make sure you're using the appropriate verb tense when listing your responsibilities;
- Within the description for each role, you could summarize your most noteworthy and relevant achievements.
Now, take note of how a real-world pediatric dental assistant professional received opportunities at industry leaders with these resume experience sections:
- Provided chair-side assistance during pediatric dental procedures, supporting dentists with patient management and maintaining a calm environment for over 600 cases.
- Consistently achieved a 98% patient satisfaction score through effective communication skills and providing educational information to parents regarding oral hygiene.
- Took charge of inventory management for dental supplies, reducing waste by 15% and ensuring the availability of necessary tools at all times.
- Implemented a new digital patient record system, enhancing the efficiency of patient data retrieval by 35%.
- Developed and conducted a staff training program on new dental technologies, which boosted the team's competency and efficiency.
- Conducted preliminary mouth examinations and prepared patients for treatment, resulting in a smoother workflow with a 20% increase in daily patients handled.
- Assisted in designing a child-friendly dental office environment that increased new patient visits by 25%.
- Played a key role in the outreach program to educate local schools on oral health, reaching over 1,200 students.
- Coordinated with dental laboratories to ensure timely delivery of dental prosthetics, reducing the waiting time for patients by 30%.
- Managed patient scheduling and front desk operations, improving appointment punctuality by 90%.
- Streamlined dental procedure set-up and teardown times, decreasing average setup time by 5 minutes, thereby increasing patient throughput.
- Facilitated crowd control and created entertaining waiting room activities that reduced patient anxiety before appointments.
- Orchestrated weekly preventive dentistry workshops for children, which helped decrease cavities among our patients by 20%.
- Established a reward system for cooperative young patients, enhancing patient experience and cooperation during visits.
- Spearheaded the adoption of new X-ray technology that reduced the radiation exposure by 40% for our pediatric patients.
- Utilized advanced knowledge in pediatric dental care to assist with complex dental surgeries, helping to reduce operation time by an average of 15 minutes.
- Supervised a team of junior dental assistants, increasing overall team performance and patient handling capability.
- Created informative pamphlets and visuals for the clinic, which improved patient education on dental hygiene practices.
- Successfully managed dental impressions and fittings for orthodontic treatments resulting in a 99% success rate in braces fittings.
- Boosted cross-functional team collaboration by initiating weekly meetings that improved treatment planning efficiency by 25%.
- Conducted comprehensive dental health assessments on first-time visits, thereby increasing successful treatment plans by 30%.
- Introduced a digital patient engagement strategy that increased patient follow-up compliance to 85%, enhancing overall dental health outcomes.
- Collaborated with pediatric dentists to refine sedation techniques, which improved patient comfort scores by over 90%.
- Acted as a liaison between the dental team and the parents, ensuring clear communication and understanding of the child's dental care plan.
The following content includes information from "O*NET OnLine" by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. The data represents the top responsibilities present on the task lists for pediatric dental assistant professionals.
Top Responsibilities for Pediatric Dental Assistant:
- Prepare patient, sterilize or disinfect instruments, set up instrument trays, prepare materials, or assist dentist during dental procedures.
- Record treatment information in patient records.
- Assist dentist in management of medical or dental emergencies.
- Order and monitor dental supplies and equipment inventory.
- Expose dental diagnostic x-rays.
- Provide postoperative instructions prescribed by dentist.
- Instruct patients in oral hygiene and plaque control programs.
- Take and record medical and dental histories and vital signs of patients.
- Apply protective coating of fluoride to teeth.
- Schedule appointments, prepare bills and receive payment for dental services, complete insurance forms, and maintain records, manually or using computer.
Quantifying impact on your resume
- Include the number of pediatric patients assisted daily to showcase efficiency and capacity.
- List the percentage of successful patient outcomes resulting from assisted dental procedures.
- Mention the volume of dental equipment sterilization processes managed per week, indicating proficiency.
- Detail the number of dental hygiene educational sessions conducted for children and parents each month.
- Highlight the rise in patient satisfaction scores during your tenure to demonstrate quality of care.
- Describe the number of pediatric dental emergencies you’ve efficiently responded to, emphasizing reliability.
- Quantify the inventory management improvements you’ve implemented, like percentage reduction in supply waste.
- Specify the number of dental health fairs or community outreach events participated in annually.
Action verbs for your pediatric dental assistant resume
What to do if you don't have any experience
It's quite often that candidates without relevant work experience apply for a more entry-level role - and they end up getting hired.
Candidate resumes without experience have these four elements in common:
- Instead of listing their experience in reverse-chronological format (starting with the latest), they've selected a functional-skill-based format. In that way, pediatric dental assistant resumes become more focused on strengths and skills
- Transferrable skills - or ones obtained thanks to work and life experience - have become the core of the resume
- Within the objective, you'd find career achievements, the reason behind the application, and the unique value the candidate brings about to the specific role
- Candidate skills are selected to cover basic requirements, but also show any niche expertise.
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PRO TIP
If you happen to have plenty of certificates, select the ones that are most applicable and sought-after across the industry. Organize them by relevance to the role you're applying for.
Bringing your pediatric dental assistant hard skills and soft skills to the forefront of recruiters' attention
Hard skills are used to define the technological (and software) capacities you have in the industry. Technical skills are easily defined via your certification and expertise.
Soft skills have more to do with your at-work personality and how you prosper within new environments. People skills can be obtained thanks to your whole life experience and are thus a bit more difficult to define.
Why do recruiters care about both types of skills?
Hard skills have more to do with job alignment and the time your new potential employers would have to invest in training you.
Soft skills hint at how well you'd adapt to your new environment, company culture, and task organization.
Fine-tune your resume to reflect on your skills capacities and talents:
- Avoid listing basic requirements (e.g. "Excel"), instead substitute with the specifics of the technology (e.g. "Excel Macros").
- Feature your workplace values and ethics as soft skills to hint at what matters most to you in a new environment.
- Build a separate skills section for your language capabilities, only if it makes sense to the role you're applying for.
- The best way to balance pediatric dental assistant hard and soft skills is by building a strengths or achievements section, where you define your outcomes via both types of skills.
There are plenty of skills that could make the cut on your resume.
That's why we've compiled for you some of the most wanted skills by recruiters, so make sure to include the technologies and soft skills that make the most sense to you (and the company you're applying for):
Top skills for your pediatric dental assistant resume:
Dental radiography
Chairside assistance
Sterilization techniques
Dental software (e.g., Dentrix, Eaglesoft)
Infection control procedures
Dental instruments handling
Patient management software
Oral health education materials
X-ray equipment operation
Dental suction systems
Communication skills
Empathy
Attention to detail
Teamwork
Time management
Patient rapport building
Problem-solving
Adaptability
Stress management
Organizational skills
Next, you will find information on the top technologies for pediatric dental assistant professonals from "O*NET OnLine" by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Top technologies for Pediatric Dental Assistant’s resume:
- Henry Schein Dentrix
- Patterson Dental Supply Patterson EagleSoft
- Microsoft Excel
- Email software
PRO TIP
The more trusted the organization you've attained your certificate (or degree) from, the more credible your skill set would be.
Certifications and education: in-demand sections for your pediatric dental assistant resume
Your academic background in the form of certifications on your resume and your higher degree education is important to your application.
The certifications and education sections pinpoint a variety of hard and soft skills you possess, as well as your dedication to the industry.
Add relevant certificates to your pediatric dental assistant resume by:
- Add special achievements or recognitions you've received during your education or certification, only if they're really noteworthy and/or applicable to the role
- Be concise - don't list every and any certificate you've obtained through your career, but instead, select the ones that would be most impressive to the role
- Include the name of the certificate or degree, institution, graduation dates, and certificate license numbers (if possible)
- Organize your education in reverse chronological format, starting with the latest degree you have that's most applicable for the role
Think of the education and certification sections as the further credibility your pediatric dental assistant resume needs to pinpoint your success.
Now, if you're stuck on these resume sections, we've curated a list of the most popular technical certificates across the industry.
Have a look, below:
The top 5 certifications for your pediatric dental assistant resume:
- Certified Dental Assistant (CDA) - Dental Assisting National Board (DANB)
- Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) - State Dental Board
- Certified Orthodontic Assistant (COA) - Dental Assisting National Board (DANB)
- Certified pediatric dental assistant (CPDA) - Pediatric Dental Assisting School
- Expanded Functions Dental Assistant (EFDA) - Various State Dental Boards or Accredited Dental Programs
The content below includes information from "O*NET OnLine" by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. The data represents the top associations for pediatric dental assistant professionals.
Top US associations for a Pediatric Dental Assistant professional
- American Dental Assistants Association
- American Dental Association
- Dental Assisting National Board
- National Dental Association
PRO TIP
Listing your relevant degrees or certificates on your pediatric dental assistant resume is a win-win situation. Not only does it hint at your technical capabilities in the industry, but an array of soft skills, like perseverance, adaptability, and motivation.
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Choosing between a pediatric dental assistant resume summary or objective
Many may argue that, in recent times, the pediatric dental assistant resume summary or objective has become completely obsolete.
But the reality is different as both of these resume sections provide you with an opportunity to :
- integrate pediatric dental assistant-vital keywords
- showcase your accomplishments
- answer why you're applying for this particular role.
The difference (between the summary and the objective) is that the:
- Resume objective puts your career goals in a more prominent position.
- Resume summary focuses more on career milestones.
We recommend you select the summary if you happen to have plenty of experience you'd like to spotlight from the very start of your pediatric dental assistant resume.
Meanwhile, the objective is ideal for those candidates who'd like to further prove their suitability for the role with their goals and soft skills.
We've featured some industry professional pediatric dental assistant resume samples to the best resume summary and objective structures:
Resume summaries for a pediatric dental assistant job
- Seasoned pediatric dental assistant with over 7 years of hands-on experience in providing exceptional oral health care to children and adolescents. Expert in managing dental anxiety, adept with digital radiography, and known for streamlining appointment workflow. Lead assistant in over 3,000 pediatric dental procedures, contributing to a 95% positive feedback score from clients.
- Dynamic individual with a background in pediatric nursing, seeking to leverage 5 years of child-focused medical care into the field of pediatric dentistry. Possesses strong communication skills, familiarity with medical documentation, and a compassionate approach to treatment. Eager to apply my medical expertise to support dental health in young patients.
- As an award-winning elementary school teacher with 10 years of experience fostering a nurturing and educational environment, I am excited to pivot my career towards pediatric dental health. Possesses extensive knowledge of child psychology and developmental milestones, aiming to enhance patient comfort and education on oral hygiene practices.
- With a deep passion for child wellness and 3 years of experience in a childcare setting, I’m eager to bring my unique blend of patience, educational techniques, and outstanding communication skills to a pediatric dental practice. I am committed to creating positive experiences that promote lifelong dental health for children.
- Enthusiastic about starting a career in the dynamic field of pediatric dentistry, I am eager to apply my recent certification from the Dental Assisting National Board. My objective is to learn from seasoned professionals while providing support in creating a comforting environment for young patients and ensuring efficient clinic operations.
- A recent graduate with an Associate’s Degree in Dental Assisting, aiming to utilize my knowledge of dental anatomy, sterilization protocols, and x-ray proficiency. Eager to contribute to a pediatric dental team while continually growing my skills and engaging with patients to instill positive dental habits from an early age.
Average salary info by state in the US for Pediatric Dental Assistant professionals
Local salary info for Pediatric Dental Assistant.” Source: My Next Move, National Center for O*NET Development. Accessed 10/15/2024
| State | Average Salary (in USD) |
|---|---|
| US National Average | $46,540 |
| California (CA) | $48,210 |
| Texas (TX) | $39,640 |
| Florida (FL) | $46,600 |
| New York (NY) | $45,590 |
| Pennsylvania (PA) | $46,680 |
| Illinois (IL) | $43,590 |
| Ohio (OH) | $46,450 |
| Georgia (GA) | $45,670 |
| North Carolina (NC) | $47,000 |
| Michigan (MI) | $45,740 |
More relevant sections for your pediatric dental assistant resume
Perhaps you feel that your current resume could make use of a few more details that could put your expertise and personality in the spotlight.
We recommend you add some of these sections for a memorable first impression on recruiters:
- Projects - you could also feature noteworthy ones you've done in your free time;
- Awards - showcasing the impact and recognition your work has across the industry;
- Volunteering - the social causes you care the most about and the soft skills they've helped you sustain and grow;
- Personality resume section - hobbies, interests, favorite quote/books, etc. could help recruiters gain an even better understanding of who you are.
Key takeaways
- The format and layout of your pediatric dental assistant resume should reflect on both your career and what matters most to the job you're applying for;
- Use the resume summary and objective to hint at your most prominent accomplishments;
- Always be specific about your experience and consider what value each bullet you curate adds to your pediatric dental assistant application;
- Consider how your academic background and technical capabilities could further showcase your alignment to the role;
- Your soft skills should contribute to your overall pediatric dental assistant profile - aligning your personality with skills and results.
