Story and Data Courtesy of DANB
The latest Dental Assisting National Board, Inc. (DANB) survey on salary variances in the dental assisting profession revealed that assistants who are DANB Certified make more than those who are not Certified. Responding to many requests regarding salary information (from Certificants, employers, national organizations, etc.) DANB continues to conduct a Show Me The Money Salary Survey every two years. The results of the 2006 survey appear in this issue of Dental Office.
DANB’s 2006 Show Me The Money Salary Survey indicates that nationally, the median salary of Certified assistants is $16.50 an hour, compared to the median hourly wage for non-Certified assistants of $14.74. (The amount for non-Certified assistants was determined by taking the national median hourly wage for non-Certified assistants last reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2002 and adjusting at 3 percent per year for inflation).
This year’s survey provides encouraging information for DANB CDAs, as well as those who employ them. The gap between dental assistants who are DANB Certified and those who are not is wider since the last DANB salary survey was conducted in 2004. In 2006, DANB Certified Assistants made an average of $1.76 more an hour than non-DANB Certified assistants. That difference between the two groups was $1.58 only two years ago. This CDA differential is increasing faster than the rate of inflation.
Results from the 2006 DANB salary survey indicate that employers benefit from having DANB CDAs on their dental teams. Keeping in mind that recruitment and retention are major issues in the oral health-care community, the survey shows that CDAs, on average, stay with the same employer 9.3 years (Chart 1), up from the 8.6 reported two years ago. In addition, the amount of time a DANB CDA is employed as a practicing dental assistant has risen to 15.9 years on average, up from 14.4 years reported in 2004. According to the American Dental Association’s 2004 Survey of Dental Practice: Employment of Dental Practice Personnel, dental assistants stay in the profession for an average of 12.1 years, and stay with the same practice for an average of 6.8 years. Therefore, the survey shows that DANB Certificants stay in the field and with the same employer about a third longer than the pool of all dental assistants, both Certified and non-Certified.
For this third DANB Show Me The Money Salary Survey, approximately 5,000 surveys were mailed to a nationwide random sample, stratified by state, of current DANB Certified assistants. An impressive 28 percent of recipients returned the survey to ensure solid research data.
According to the results of the survey, most DANB Certified assistants work full-time (Chart 1) and in General Dentistry (Chart 2) in a Private Practice office setting (Chart 3).
Certified assistants working in specialty practices (Chart 2) make more than those employed in general dental practice, with periodontic assistants earning the most at $18.50 an hour.
The West Coast region of the United States (Chart 4; see above) pays the most on average for Certified assistants, followed by the North Central, Northeast, South Central, and Southeast regions of the country, respectively.
More than half of all DANB Certified assistants responding to DANB’s survey receive paid vacation (86%), paid holidays (82%), free dental care (61%), paid sick leave (60%), reimbursement for continuing education (52%), a 401K pension plan (61%), health insurance (55%), and a uniform allowance (50%).
Less than half of those DANB Certificants surveyed receive a bonus (43%), reimbursement for Certification or state registration renewal (30%), dental insurance (24%), life insurance (22%), profit sharing (15%), reimbursement for ADAA dues (16%), disability insurance (16%), malpractice insurance (7%) and child care allowance (2%).
