Home Dental Assistant Resume template
Dental Assistant resume template
A clean starting structure with example content grounded in what dental assistants actually do day to day, not generic filler. Download and replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Which resume format should you use?
Reverse chronological
You have a steady work history. This is the format almost every recruiter and ATS expects by default.
Functional
You're changing fields or have gaps in your employment. Leads with skills rather than a job-by-job timeline.
Combination
You're early career or have worked consistently but for only a few employers. Blends a skills summary with a shorter chronological history.
This template uses the reverse chronological format: the one most dental assistants should default to, since most Australian recruiters and ATS software expect it.
Professional summary
Dental Assistant with hands-on experience supporting chairside procedures, sterilisation protocols and patient care in general practice. Comfortable moving between clinical support and front-of-house administration, with a steady focus on infection control and patient comfort during treatment.
Key skills
- Chairside assisting and instrument preparation
- Infection control and sterilisation (autoclave operation)
- Patient record management
- Appointment scheduling and reception
- Patient education on oral hygiene and post-treatment care
- Dental handpiece and ultrasonic scaler handling
- Intraoral camera operation
- Patient management software (Dentrix, Curve)
Experience: example bullet points
- Prepared and sterilised instruments before each procedure, following autoclave protocols to meet infection control standards
- Assisted dentists chairside during restorative and general procedures, passing instruments and managing suction to keep appointments running on schedule
- Maintained accurate patient treatment records in Dentrix, cutting down on charting and billing discrepancies
- Coordinated patient scheduling and reception duties, including HICAPS claims and payment processing
- Educated patients on oral hygiene and post-treatment care, reducing the number of follow-up queries after procedures
Education
Certificate III or IV in Dental Assisting (nationally recognised training), typically completed through TAFE or a registered training organisation, often paired with on-the-job training in a dental practice.
Keywords an ATS is likely to scan for
Applicant tracking systems match your resume against terms in the job ad before a person ever sees it. Only include the ones that actually apply to your experience, but if a term below matches something you've done, use the same wording the job ad uses.
- Cert III in Dental Assisting
- AS/NZS 4187 sterilisation standards
- Dental Board of Australia
- HICAPS
- Dentrix
- Curve Dental
- chairside assisting
- autoclave sterilisation
- oral health education
- Medicare and DVA schedules
- infection control
- patient record management
Getting past ATS screening
- Match the specific skills, certifications and terms used in the job ad, not just your own wording for the same thing.
- Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, headers/footers or graphics. Parsers frequently drop content placed in these.
- Submit as .docx or PDF unless the job ad specifies otherwise.
- Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) rather than creative alternatives.
- List your core skills and technical competencies in their own section so a keyword scan can find them instantly.
This is a starting point, not a guarantee of interviews. Tailor every bullet point to your own real experience and the specific job ad.