Empower Your Dental Practice Team in 2025

A dental practice's team smiling.

 

Dental practice managers know the importance of creating a thriving and resilient dental practice culture. After all, employees are more likely to enjoy showing up to an office that prioritizes teamwork and supporting one another. According to the 2024 Dental Assistants Salary and Satisfaction Survey report, feeling part of a team is one of the top three factors that impact dental assistant job satisfaction.

An essential element of building a strong team is fostering a positive, safe, and supportive culture.

That’s why the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB) and the DALE Foundation created the Empowered Workplace for Dental Assistants Toolkit. This free resource equips dental team members with valuable tools, strategies, and complimentary CE courses to address crucial workplace issues that directly impact the well-being of both staff and patients.

View the Toolkit

This toolkit will be regularly updated with resources that reflect emerging trends and best practices in dental practice culture. The first series of webinar-based courses are each worth at least 1 CE credit and center on topics related to practice and patient safety and well-being:

The topics presented in these courses are more common than people might realize — for example, 41% of dental assistants have reported experiencing hostility or abuse at work, according to DANB’s survey.

Using the Toolkit as a Team

Here’s how dental office managers can use this toolkit to support their dental team’s growth.

Plan Team-Building Days

Bring your office together with a team-building day using the courses in the Empowered Workplace for Dental Assistants Toolkit. Post flyers around the office announcing the time and date and help staff members adjust their schedules to ensure everyone can attend.

Consider bringing in lunch or providing a variety of snacks and refreshments. You can host one full team-building day using all the courses in the toolkit or offer a series of shorter team-building opportunities featuring one course at a time.

Getting Started

Before watching the courses in the toolkit, thank everyone for attending and explain that your practice is hosting a team-building day to foster a supportive environment. Build time into the schedule to allow participants to enjoy refreshments and get to know each other—you could include a list of friendly ice-breaker questions at each table to encourage conversation.

Take a moment to remind staff that the courses feature serious topics that may result in questions and additional dialogue. Encourage staff to be open and respectful in their participation. If anyone has questions or comments that they’d like to discuss privately, invite them to reach out to you or another office leader.

Learn and Discuss Together

Following your ice-breaker activity, watch a course from the Empowered Workplace for Dental Assistants Toolkit together. Give an introduction to the course that explains the importance of the topic and why it’s important to be informed. Each course lasts approximately one hour.

The information presented in the toolkit addresses critical topics in the dental profession, so set aside time for questions and discussion. After each course, lead a conversation with the team around how to implement the guidance from the courses and what to do if scenarios such as human trafficking, substance use disorder, and workplace violence arise in your dental practice.

Follow Up

After your team-building day, send an email to staff thanking everyone for their participation. Consider including plans, policies, or other materials to help staff apply what they learned. The toolkit will be regularly updated with resources that reflect emerging trends and best practices in dental practice culture, so consider planning future team-building days.

By completing the Empowered Workplace for Dental Assistants Toolkit, the entire dental team will gain valuable information to help make your practice and your community safer, while building trust among colleagues.


About Our Sponsor

 

Profile of Michelle Godofsky.

Michelle Godofsky

Michelle Godofsky is the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB) and the DALE Foundation.

 

 

 

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