How much does an oral surgery assistant make?

Start with the honest framing: BLS publishes no separate wage series for oral surgery assistants.

Its OEWS data count them inside SOC 31-9091, Dental Assistants, alongside registered assistants, EFDAs, and orthodontic, pediatric, endodontic, hygiene and lead assistants — so the dental assistant distribution is the closest federal anchor.

In May 2025 the national median was $23.11 an hour, or $48,070 a year, and the middle half earned between $21.32 and $27.93 an hour ($44,340 to $58,090 a year).

First-party listings point the same direction.

Dental practices hiring dental assistants on DentistryHires posted a median of $23.50 an hour across 1,305 employers and 2,651 listings that stated hourly pay (October 6, 2026).

For the role itself and its AAOMS anesthesia certification, see the oral surgery assistant role guide; this page stays on pay.

No source we checked measures whether oral and maxillofacial surgery practices pay assistants more than general practices do.

The federal data cannot split the specialty out of its one dental assistant series, and DentistryHires does not split posted dental assistant pay by specialty in its published listing data.

Any claim that surgical assistants earn a fixed dollar or percentage more is an estimate, not a measurement.

The closest measured signal is the setting, not the title.

Hospital dental assistants — about 2,020 jobs — had a median of $26.25 an hour ($54,610 a year), versus $23.08 an hour ($48,000) across the 354,900 dental assistant jobs in offices of dentists.

That is a hospital premium, not proof of an oral surgery premium — no figure on this page prices OMS practices separately.

If you're hiring rather than job-hunting, our guide to hiring for OMS practices covers the employer side.

DAANCE — the Dental Anesthesia Assistant National Certification Examination from the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) — is the credential built for this role.

It is a two-part program: about 36 hours of self-study material and quizzes plus a computer-based exam, designed for oral surgery assistants and assistants of other dentists who hold valid anesthesia permits.

Eligibility requires at least six months of employment by an AAOMS fellow/member or by a dental professional with a valid anesthesia permit, plus current CPR, BLS or ACLS.

What it does not come with, in any source we can cite, is a measured pay premium.

BLS publishes no series that prices oral surgery assistants, and no citable survey splits DAANCE holders out — the published pay comparison we can cite (DANB's 2026 data) runs along certification, lead status and restorative functions instead.

The credential's negotiable value is what it documents: anesthesia-focused training an employer can verify, not a raise any published source measures.

"Dental anesthesia assistant" is a formal credential in Washington, where applicants complete a commission-approved course — such as AAOMS's DAANCE or CALAOMS's OMS assistant course — plus IV access and phlebotomy training, and work under an oral surgeon or dental anesthesiologist who holds a general anesthesia permit.

Washington's Department of Health lists it as its own profession, alongside dental assistant, EFDA and dental therapist.

North Dakota recognizes Dental Anesthesia Assistant (DAA) as one of its named dental assistant levels, and Rhode Island regulation distinguishes DAANCE-certified maxillofacial surgery assistants as their own category; elsewhere, the phrase works as a job title — what a state requires is set by its dental board.

BLS publishes no wage series for the title: all of these assistants sit inside its single dental assistant series, and none of our sources prices the credential.

The same is true of "dental anesthesiologist assistant" — it is a variant title, not a separately measured occupation.

Whether an assistant may administer anesthesia at all is a different, state-drawn line; see can DAs give anesthesia for where it sits.

We found no source that splits dental assistant pay by years of experience — oral surgery assistants included.

The published comparison we can cite — DANB's 2026 data — runs along certification, lead status and restorative functions, not tenure, so treat any "entry-level vs. experienced" oral surgery salary table as modeled rather than measured.

A sourced experience milestone in this niche is DAANCE's own eligibility rule: you cannot sit for it until you have at least six months of employment with an AAOMS fellow/member or another dental professional holding a valid anesthesia permit.

Beyond that, the percentile spread in the next section is the realistic band — where an individual lands reflects the local market, the practice and the negotiation, not years alone.

This is the fullest federal view available, and it covers dental assistants as a whole — the series oral surgery assistants are counted in.

In May 2025, BLS OEWS counted 387,790 dental assistant jobs nationally with a mean wage of $24.13 an hour ($50,200 a year).

The percentile spread ran from under $17.85 an hour at the 10th percentile — the lowest-paid 10% earned under $37,130 a year — to over $29.93 an hour at the 90th, or over $62,250.

The mean sits above the median — the top of the distribution pulls it up.

Until a source starts splitting the specialty out, this distribution is the reference point — it is not an oral-surgery-specific figure, and we found no oral-surgery-specific one.

The same BLS percentiles, converted.

The monthly column is the annual figure divided by 12 — the only arithmetic on this page; every other number is as the source publishes it.

DentistryHires' posted hourly figures are deliberately not converted the same way.

Posted pay is what employers advertise, not what any individual earns across a year — schedules and time off make a straight hourly-to-annual conversion misleading.

BLS's setting data covers dental assistants as a whole, not oral surgery assistants separately — so read each row as the setting's market, not an OMS figure.

Offices of dentists, the closest anchor for a private oral surgery practice, paid a May 2025 median of $23.08 an hour ($48,000 a year) across 354,900 jobs.

Hospitals paid more — a median of $26.25 an hour ($54,610 a year) — but the group is small, about 2,020 jobs nationwide, so treat it as a thin, specialized slice rather than a common destination.

Two settings need their own handling: DSOs and public health.

We found no published DSO-versus-private-practice pay split for assistants, so evaluate a DSO offer on its own terms rather than against a benchmark we can't point to.

For public health, the closest category is outpatient care centers — the group that includes community clinics, though BLS does not isolate community health centers in this table — with a median of $23.60 an hour ($49,090 a year) across about 8,560 jobs.

Read that as a category-level figure, not a community-clinic wage.

Experience is hard to document; credentials are not, and they are what a hiring oral surgeon can verify.

Washington, California and Rhode Island each name a specific credential for sedation or maxillofacial surgery assisting.

In California, the Dental Board of California issues anesthesia and sedation permits, plus orthodontic assistant and dental sedation assistant permits — and the dental sedation assistant permit requires RDA or RDAEF licensure or 12 months of dental assisting experience, Dental Practice Act and infection control courses, current BLS, a board-approved sedation assistant course, fingerprints and a written exam (Bus. & Prof.

Code 1750.4(a)).

None of our sources prices any of these credentials in dollars — the same gap as the DAANCE section above.

The workable move is to treat them as verifiable facts about you in an offer conversation, and to benchmark against your state's all-assistant figures rather than against a premium no source we found measures.

The same logic plays out in the orthodontic chair; see how the ortho assistant pay question resolves without a specialty table.

No source we checked names a "highest-paying state for oral surgery assistants."

The federal data carries one blended dental assistant occupation at every geography — national, state and metro — and DentistryHires' posted pay is not split by specialty either.

What exists is state-level data for dental assistants as a whole: BLS's state medians are on our dental assistant salary page.

Read your state's all-assistant median as the baseline an oral surgery offer gets priced on top of.

Two reference points beyond the title.

The surgeon you chair for has a pay scale of its own — see oral surgeon salary.

And to see where assisting ranks across the industry's roles, the cross-role dental jobs ranked by pay comparison sets the industry's roles side by side, not just this one.

This page sits inside the dental assistant career guide, which covers the rest of the role family.

General career and employer information, not legal or financial advice. Credential and permit requirements are state-specific — confirm them with your state dental board.