2013 Texas dental assisting salary survey

2013 Texas dental assisting salary survey

(National averages or percentages are in the parentheses to allow for comparison)

• Most common hourly rates: $16, $20 ($18)
• % who earn $30 or more an hour: 10% (6%)
• % who last received a raise more than a year ago: 66% (56%)
• % who believe raises occur at fair intervals: 28% (41%)
• % who would recommend dental assisting as a profession: 69% (73%)
• % who envision continued employment as a dental assistant three years from now: 66% (71%)

Selected comments from Texas:

• Dental assistant tuition has gone up since I attended school, and the pay is still the same. I would love for the pay rate to go up for the future dental assistants.
• I think income (pay scale ) should be more than $20 an hour.
• The dental assisting schools lie about wages for new dental assistants.
• I make a decent salary, but I have not had a raise in six years. With the cost of living going up, a little boost would help.
• Assistants are underpaid. I had a patient who was a nurse, and she was surprised that we don't get paid like nurses do.
• As the dentist keep expecting the assistants to do more and more responsibility (such as designing CAD/CAM crowns, etc.), the dentist needs to increase pay accordingly.
• Texas is a huge state and has grown economically, especially in the Rio Grande Valley. So, it is time for our salaries to grow as well.
• The 10-week schools are killing our profession! Why hire some one with experience and pay what they deserve, when you can hire two for the price of one ($8-9 per hourr) and put up with the headache of training them yourself.
• The dental assisting schools do not even offer hepatitis vaccines, charge a lot for school, and deceive students on the starting wages. More DA will be in debt from the increasing tuition; dentists will be unwilling to pay the starting wages that the schools mislead the students into thinking they will get.
• Considering the amount of clinical work and administrative support we give the doctor, our profession is considerably underpaid and overworked, and deserves more respect. We are truly treated as workhorses, and expectations are set too high for what we get compensated.
• San Antonio [doctors] hires non-certfied DAs with no experience so they can pay very low wages.

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