Are you looking for a career that can make you job-ready in just four months, gives you good pay, and at the same time offers you growth prospects? Then you can surely look into the prospects of starting a career as a chairside dental assistant. You can ask a valid question: How such a short diploma can offer so many benefits? Let us explain everything one by one, but for that, you just need to read the blog till the end.
Higher Salaries
The median salary of a chairside dental assistant in Canada is $25.44 per hour, according to the Government of Canada. This is a median salary, which means that you can get a higher or lower salary as well, depending upon your experience and your location in Canada. What is noteworthy is that this is a higher median salary compared to other median salaries in similar professions in Canada. However, if you happen to be in British Columbia or Alberta, then you can expect a way higher salary of $35 or $36 per hour, respectively. Check out the infographic below to see how much salary you can expect in your province.
Source: Job bank
Opportunities for further growth
The benefit of doing a Chairside Dental Assistant Diploma Program is that you can also opt for further certificates and diplomas to seek better career opportunities. Suppose; you start a job after attaining a Chairside Dental Assistant diploma, and two years down the road you want to acquire specialization in a certain field, then you can opt for so many certifications and diplomas such as orthodontic assisting, pediatric dental assisting, and oral surgery assisting, etc. If you get any such new skills, they will definitely allow you to get a raise in your salary.
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Moreover, you can pursue further education and do certifications in dental hygiene programs and expanded duty dental assisting. Dental hygienists play a pivotal role in educating patients about preventive oral healthcare and other such activities, while expanded-duty dental assistants perform special dental procedures under the guidance of a dentist.
After getting some hands-on experience as chairside dental assistant, you can also get into management and dental sales and marketing. In a management role, you need to oversee everyday practice in a dental clinic, practice, or hospital. In dental sales and marketing, you need to have good communication skills to promote dental equipment, dental products, or dental services.
Work-Life Balance
One of the most appealing aspects of having a career in dental assisting is the flexibility that it offers in working hours. In most cases, dental practices offer flexible working hours to their staff, mainly because it is easier for clinics to fix day timings that can accommodate both patients and employees. Moreover, unlike other medical fields, dental assisting does not require night shifts because their working hours are in regular daytime.Flexible working hours in this case provide work-life balance to dental assistants, and they can use this time to pursue further education to improve their skills.
Early Entry Into The Workforce
In most cases, diplomas can take from eight months to two years, which means a student has to not only spend more on its program but also needs to wait to finish it to be able to start earning. However, this is not the case in the Chairside Dental Assistant Diploma Program.
For instance, if you choose Edison College’s Chairside Dental Assistant Program In Victoria BC diploma, you will be able to start your career just after your graduation. This diploma also prepares its graduates for charting and record keeping so that they can also handle basic office administration duties along with the core duties of chairside dental assistant such as dental assisting in clinical practice and dental clinic infection control and safety protocols, etc.
Job Stability
The demand for dental care professionals is high and is expected to remain high for a variety of reasons. One reason is that, compared to the past, more and more people are now consulting dentists for treatments due to rising awareness about oral health, scaling and polishing, preventive dental care, etc. When you have skills in a demanding profession, you tend to have higher job stability. It is a simple case of demand and supply; when the demand is high for certain skills, employees can better negotiate with their employers and get better salaries according to their experience and expertise.
Conclusion
Whether it is a good work-life balance, high salaries, or career stability, you can find all these important aspects in a chairside dental assistant career. Besides, dental practices also offer additional benefits such as dental care, health insurance, and retirement plans, etc. All these factors significantly contribute to the compensation package; therefore, it is important to keep these factors in mind while considering a job offer or evaluating a career. Moreover, we have already discussed it above that flexible working hours of chairside dental assistants provide a very good opportunity to develop your skillset by pursuing further education. We hope that we have covered all the important aspects that you might have in mind about chairside dental assistant diploma and career. However, if you still have any questions or concerns, you can contact us today to learn more.
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