Transition from Dental Assistant to Office Manager: How Your Skillset Can Propel Your Career
As a dental assistant, you have spent the beginning of your career assisting the doctor and educating patients regarding all the benefits of prioritizing their dental health. What if you have a drive for more? Who better to lead a team than someone who can see things from the perspective of those who work the schedule daily? You already can excel in the planning of patient care, so why not use that excellence to benefit an entire practice? Let’s look at how your current skillset can propel your career into a dental manager position.
Being able to see the office as a whole and experiencing cross-training can have definite merit if you are considering making the move from the back to the ultimate team leader. You might consider thinking about these questions: Have you spent time with the front office team? Have you spent time answering calls? If your office has a lab, have you spent time learning the ins and outs? It is also important when considering a move to this new role to truly have a passion for helping others reach their potential and being able to see the potential, they have but may not recognize.
Are you already seen as a leader in your practice?
Maybe you are the lead assistant, but others come to you to get answers to questions across the board. Leadership is key to the transition. Leading is best done by example. When you transition from the back to the front, you have the opportunity to close a divide. We all know that we hear more about the front-to-back, back-to-front “divide” than probably anything. Making the move to lead the team gives you:
- the innate ability to use the skills that you have from the back to better help the front office team understand from the perspective of those that are “working” the schedule
- you can fill in the blanks for the back-office team to understand what the front office handles on a daily basis
- meet the goals of the patient, the doctor, and scheduling
- create success for the team overall
If you’ve taken the initiative to cross-train and learn the daily tasks of the front team, it demonstrates your commitment to becoming an exceptional leader. This willingness to perform any duty that benefits both the practice and the patients, coupled with your understanding of expectations from an assistant’s perspective, sets you on the path to effective leadership.
How will your team react?
If you transition into this role within a practice where you are currently a team member, there can be some pushback. Prior to the transition, you were “one of them” and you may now be seen as a threat due to the increased responsibility for all things that come with the leadership role: an important one being team discipline. One important factor here is to set clear expectations from the beginning. The team needs to understand your expectations as well as know that you respect them but that you will expect respect in return.
Author guidance.
Speaking from experience, I made this transition 11 years into my career. Someone in the practice saw something in me that I had not even considered for myself. From the start, 11 years prior, I had been preparing for a role that I had not even envisioned. In the beginning, a lab assistant who completed all tasks at hand would seek out other duties, which led to learning the ins and outs of the front office. Tackling everything from answering the phone to submitting an insurance claim and any given task in between. This is not the route everyone experiences, but when it is, it can definitely benefit one’s perspective and level of respect.
Where to start?
Transitioning made easier starts with AADOM. The tools that you need are literally at your fingertips and are a worthy investment for yourself and your team. Not only are there many tools within the AADOM website, but you have an unlimited supply of support from the members! Can’t find the answer you need on the website? No problem! Reach out to one of the many specialty networks! I think I speak for all of us when I say that you can’t go wrong with our group. Let’s hear it! A-A…. D-O-M!
About the Author
Tamela Jones, MAADOM
Tamela started her dental journey in December 1989. She is a Missouri native and has been a member of AADOM since 2017. Tamela received her AADOM Master Distinction in 2022 and is pursuing her AADOM Diplomate Distinction. She loves to cook and read in her downtime, but when she is not in the office, she truly enjoys farming with her husband of 12 years. She and her husband share 4 children and are grandparents to Ryker who is the light of their life.
