If you are considering employment as a dental receptionist there are many characteristic traits you want to embody not only to get hired but stay employed.

In many dental practice offices a front desk receptionist is hired and over the course of time it becomes clear that something is lacking. Use the below criteria to make yourself viable for the long term.

The idea is to not only make yourself amicable to patients but act in a sales role when potential patients call in. An experienced dental receptionist can close the sale and book the first appointment 9 times out of 10. This is one thing dental consultants like AMP look for when evaluating dental practices. If you want to pass the test and make the grade in the eyes of dental practice management professionals be sure you get these following skills in order.

The duties

The duties of a dental assistant differs from your average receptionist, some knowledge of dental will help you in getting the job and will also help you a lot when taking calls, phoning the clients and also handling paperwork. Here are a couple of duties that a dental assistant will undertake:

• Communication

A dental assistant will communicate with patients via telephone, email, letter and also in person so communication is a big quality to have. One of your goals will also be to greet new clients and make them feel comfortable, good sales skills are also a must here as this will make new and potential clients into lifelong customers as opposed to just one timers, remember, first impressions count. You must also remember that a lot of people are terrified of the dentists so an understanding and good manner will go a long way here.

• Bookkeeping

Once the work is carried out, you, as a receptionist will need to issue a bill of sale to the customer and outline the costs and procedures administered. If the patient has dental insurance you must determine how much the insurance company is putting towards the treatment and outlay that within the invoice. Dental assistants usually have bookkeeping software to contend with as well as credit card terminals, don’t worry, being good with numbers is not required here as the system does everything for you, just a keen eye for detail is all that is required.

• Record Maintenance

The dentist themselves are responsible for creating the records but the receptionist is responsible for keeping the records in order and also up to date. These records contain information such as allergies, medications, treatments, long-term dental care, copies of x-rays and more, they are accessible by the dentist, hygienist and receptionist. The records these days will more than likely be kept electronically, if not they will be stored in a locked filing cabinet for patient confidentiality purposes.

• Insurance Billing

 Dentists usually have a billing specialist who bills insurance companies for treatments and procedures carried out on their clients with dental insurance, though some dentists require their receptionist to do this for them. Billing an insurance company for services requires official codes for each treatment carried out so the department at the insurance company can quickly and easily make the payments to the dentist surgery. Don’t worry, there is no college training needed here and this will generally be on-the-job training.