D.P. T-Shot Reference Blog

Salary information is one of the most important things to look into before deciding upon a career. Everyone wants to do what they love, but many times it just isn’t feasible, because the salary offered just isn’t high enough to support the lifestyle we want. So, how does a dental assistant salary stack up?

Like any other career, the salaries for a dental assistant vary, but you can draw some strong inferences based on trends from across the United States. It’s important, of course, to realize that these are only estimates and that any salary you get paid will depend upon your particular employer, your experience, and so on.

Still and all, on the average, most dental assistants are making somewhere between 30 and 35 thousand dollars per year. Now, understand that this is just the average. There are some dental assistants out there who break the 50,000 dollar a year mark. It all depends.

On what does it depend? In large part upon where you live. Money means something different from one state to the other and what may be a good salary in Ohio isn’t going to cut the mustard in New York City. This all has to do with how in demand dental assistants are (a bigger population equates to a bigger demand) and what the cost of living is.

That said, California and New York seem to offer the best dental assistant salaries right now, with most people coming right out of school entering the work force with a salary of 13 to 15 dollars an hour. On the other hand, however, in a state like Kansas, you may only make 11.

City is an important consideration when trying to figure out the average dental assistant salary as well. Here, New York City stands out far in front of the others with a 17 dollar an hour average starting salary. Coming in at the end of the pack is Houston, which offers only about 12. So, before you head out into the work force, do your research!