How to Become a Dental Receptionist

A dental receptionist is an integral team member in any dental studio. From booking and confirming appointments to greeting patients and processing payments, they cover a wide range of essential admin duties.

Dental receptionists are both the face and backbone of a dental practice. They are responsible for ensuring each patient’s first and final impressions are positive while also making sure all the paperwork and processes behind the scenes are moving smoothly.

But if you’ve got what it takes to juggle these tasks, working in this field can also be immensely rewarding. Discover how to become a dental receptionist below.

Dental Receptionist Skills

You don’t need the medical skills to fix people’s smiles like a dentist does. However, you do need interpersonal skills to make patients smile when they arrive and leave the practice. This means having strong communication skills, a friendly personality and a helpful attitude are all important.

Other attributes that will help you succeed as a dental receptionist include:

• Strong organisational and multi-tasking skills

• Accuracy and attention to detail

• Computer literacy and efficiency

• Customer service skills

• Collaborative attitude (team player)

• Good manners (including phone etiquette)

• A general understanding of how dental studios operate.

Dental Receptionist Qualifications

You don’t necessarily need formal training to get hired as a dental receptionist. However, many practices prefer to employ people with a dental receptionist course under their belt. Completing a HLT57715 Diploma of Practice Management will give you an edge over other candidates.

Even a HLT35021 Certificate III in Dental Assisting could prove useful – especially for small practices where having flexible, multi-talented staff members is beneficial.

Benefits of Working as a Dental Receptionist

As with most jobs, being a dental receptionist comes with some trials and days that are harder than others. However, also like most jobs, if you’re passionate about what you’re doing, the rewards are well worth the challenges.

The satisfaction of seeing people leave happier than they arrived is a big part of what makes this job satisfying. You also get the feeling of accomplishment from knowing that you’re helping the dentist(s) in your practice work as efficiently as possible. 

In addition to these benefits, dental receptionists tend to enjoy:

• Healthy work-life balance

• A variety of work (every day brings new challenges)

• Good opportunities for career progression

• Solid job security

• High overall job satisfaction.

The average salary for people in this role is between $50,000 and $60,000p.a. (according to data from Seek).

Not sure if this is the right job for you? Perhaps working as a Dental Assistant is where you belong. You’ll spend more time working beside Dentists rather than at the front desk. Read more about this role here. 

Next