Dental Assistant Resume Example

Also called Certified Dental Assistant, CDA, Chairside Assistant.

Dentists hire assistants who keep the chair running on time and patients calm. Your resume should show which procedures you assist with, whether you can take X-rays where you live, and which practice software you use.

Use this exampleBrowse all templates

Opens in the builder with this text in place, ready for you to replace with your own.

What this example does well

  • Procedures are named one by one, so a dentist can see at once which ones Priya already knows.
  • The room-turnover bullet links her speed to something the practice gained: two more appointments a day.
  • State registration and national certification are listed separately with who issued each.

Updated

Priya Nair

Certified Dental Assistant

Summary

Certified dental assistant with six years in general and pediatric dentistry. Assists two dentists with 16 to 20 patients a day, takes digital X-rays and impressions, and keeps sterilization logs inspection-ready. California Registered Dental Assistant with a coronal polishing certificate.

Experience

Registered Dental AssistantLand Park Dental GroupSacramento, California

Feb 2022 – Present

  • Assist two dentists chairside with fillings, crowns, extractions and root canals for 16 to 20 patients a day.
  • Take digital X-rays, intraoral scans and impressions, with retakes needed on fewer than 2% of images.
  • Turn rooms over in under seven minutes, which let the practice add two appointment slots a day.
  • Order supplies within a monthly budget and keep the sterilization log that passed the last two inspections without findings.

Dental AssistantLittle Smiles Pediatric DentistryElk Grove, California

Jun 2020 – Jan 2022

  • Prepared children aged two to fourteen for cleanings, sealants and fillings, explaining each step in words they understood.
  • Placed sealants and applied fluoride under the dentist's direction.
  • Recorded treatment notes and charting in Dentrix during procedures.

Education

Dental Assisting CertificateSacramento City CollegeSacramento, California

2020

Skills

  • Four-handed dentistry
  • Digital X-rays
  • Impressions and intraoral scanning
  • Sterilization
  • Dentrix and Eaglesoft
  • Coronal polishing
  • Sealants
  • Patient education

Certifications

  • Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) — Dental Board of California
  • Certified Dental Assistant (CDA) — Dental Assisting National Board, 2021
  • CPR for Healthcare Providers — American Heart Association, 2025
An example: Priya Nair is not a real person, and the details show the kind of thing to write rather than a real career. Shown in the Horizon template. Words that postings for this job often use are marked in yellow.

How do you write a summary for a dental assistant resume?

Two to four lines at the top that say what you do, for how long, and what you are best at. Here is one for each stage of a career.

  • Entry level

    Dental assisting graduate with a 300-hour clinical externship in a general practice, where I assisted with fillings and crowns, took X-rays and sterilized instruments. Hold a state radiography certificate and CPR. Friendly with anxious patients and quick to set up a room.

  • Experienced

    Dental assistant with four years of chairside experience in general dentistry. Assists with restorative and surgical procedures for up to 18 patients a day, takes digital X-rays and works in Dentrix.

  • Senior

    Lead dental assistant with eleven years in general and specialty practices. Trains and schedules four assistants, manages supply ordering and infection control, and is licensed for expanded functions including placing fillings.

How to write a resume summary, with more examples

What are good bullet points for a dental assistant resume?

Each starts with a verb and says what was done. Change the details and numbers to your own; a number you cannot explain in an interview is worse than none.

  1. Assisted chairside with fillings, crowns, extractions and root canals using four-handed technique.

  2. Took bitewing, periapical and panoramic X-rays with a retake rate under 2%.

  3. Took impressions and digital scans for crowns, night guards and whitening trays.

  4. Set up and broke down treatment rooms in under seven minutes between patients.

  5. Sterilized instruments and ran weekly spore tests on the autoclaves, logging every result.

  6. Explained aftercare for extractions and fillings and answered patients' questions.

  7. Charted existing conditions and treatment in the practice software as the dentist called them out.

  8. Made temporary crowns and removed excess cement under the dentist's direction.

  9. Calmed nervous patients and children before and during treatment.

  10. Tracked and ordered supplies, keeping spending within the monthly budget.

Which skills should a dental assistant put on a resume?

Pick the ones the job posting asks for and that you can back up with an example from your work.

Hard skills

  • Four-handed chairside assisting
  • Dental radiography
  • Impressions and intraoral scanning
  • Instrument sterilization
  • Temporary crowns
  • Coronal polishing and sealants, where permitted
  • Dental charting
  • Practice software (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental)

Soft skills

  • Reassuring manner
  • Anticipating the dentist's next step
  • Manual dexterity
  • Organization
  • Punctuality

Licenses and certifications

  • Certified Dental Assistant, CDA (DANB)
  • State registration or license, where required
  • Dental radiography certificate
  • Expanded functions certificate (EFDA)
  • CPR or Basic Life Support

Which keywords belong on a dental assistant resume?

The words recruiters and applicant tracking systems search for.

  • chairside
  • X-rays
  • impressions
  • sterilization
  • Dentrix
  • fillings
  • crowns
  • sealants
  • patients a day

Use the ones that are true for you, written the way the posting writes them, and put each where it shows something you did. A list of keywords with nothing behind it helps nobody. To keep them readable by software, choose an ATS-friendly template, and read how applicant tracking systems read a resume.

Which dental assistant duties should you list?

List the procedures you assist with by name, then the tasks you do on your own. What an assistant may do alone depends on the state: taking X-rays, polishing, placing sealants and making temporaries each have their own rules and often their own certificate.

Name the certificate next to the task when one is needed. A dentist reading "takes X-rays" will want to know you are permitted to, and seeing the radiography certificate answers that.

How do you make a dental assistant resume stand out?

Show that you make the practice run better. Room turnover time, patients per day, retake rates and supply spending are all things an office manager tracks.

Add the software and equipment you know: the practice system, digital sensors, intraoral scanners. A practice that uses the same ones can put you to work on day one.

What do healthcare employers look for in a resume?

  • Put your license or registration where it cannot be missed: next to your name or at the top of a certifications section, with the state or country that issued it.
  • Name the setting and its size. A 28-bed surgical unit, a four-dentist practice and a home-care round of nine clients tell a recruiter far more than the job title does.
  • Show safety and accuracy with numbers you can stand behind: patients per shift, audit results, falls, waiting times. Leave out anything that could identify a patient.

All healthcare resume examples

Questions about a dental assistant resume

Do dental assistants need certification?

It depends on the state and on the tasks. Some states let you start with on-the-job training, while X-rays and expanded functions often need a certificate or registration. List exactly what you hold.

What should a dental assistant with no experience write?

Lead with your training program and externship hours, the procedures you observed and assisted with, and any radiography or CPR certificate. Customer service jobs are worth including too.

Should front-desk tasks go on a dental assistant resume?

Yes, if you did them. Scheduling, insurance checks and treatment plan estimates make you more useful to a small practice.

How long should a dental assistant resume be?

One page.

Make this dental assistant resume yours.

Start from the example, swap in your own jobs and numbers, and switch to any template without retyping a word.

Use this example