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Dental office managers oversee all aspects of a dental clinic, including scheduling appointments, managing staff, and maintaining patient records. Post-secondary training, such as an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in dental office administration, can be helpful. Courses in marketing, staff management, and medical terminology are included in dental office management programs. Certification is not mandatory but can be beneficial for career advancement.
Dental office managers coordinate all aspects of a dental clinic. For example, your job might involve answering phone calls, entering patients’ dental appointments into the computer, maintaining dentist schedules, hiring office assistants, training new hires, maintaining patient records, and ensuring that certain dental lab results are properly organized. If you want to become a dental office manager, it is often helpful to have post-secondary training.
Some people choose to become a dental assistant or dental hygienist first, then they choose to become a dental office manager as a consequence of their dental assistant job or dental hygienist job. Of course, if you’re not interested in being a dental assistant or a dental hygienist and are only interested in being a dental office manager, remember that an associate’s degree in dental office administration or dental office management from a college of two years can be useful. Obtaining a four-year degree in dental office administration is also an option if you hope to become a dental office manager.
Dental office manager programs include courses such as marketing, staff management, and account management. Also included are courses such as database management, medical billing, and patient communication. In some cases, an internship involving supervised work in a dental office may be required. This course will enable you to develop the specific office skills needed to work successfully when you become a dental office manager.
Additionally, dental practice management programs include courses such as pharmacology, pathology, and medical terminology. True, these courses are more medically related and not office related. However, dental office management programs consider it important for students to have general familiarity with medical or dental topics so that they can be more effective in their work as dental office managers.
In the past, there was a certification called DPMAC (Dental Practice Management Administrator Certification). This particular certification ceased to exist in 2008 due to efforts by the profession to update certification requirements. That certification will be available again at some point, although it’s not clear when. Certification is not mandatory, however it can be helpful as it shows that you are familiar with dental practice management procedures and are committed to the profession. Prospective employers are likely to view certification as an asset, and because of this, certification is likely to expand your long-term career options.
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