EFDA Job Description Template
Copy it, replace the bracketed parts, and set the duties and credential lines to what your state allows.
An EFDA job description should say five things plainly: which expanded functions you are delegating, the credential your state requires for them, how the seat is supervised, the pay range, and the schedule.
The summary, benefits and equal-opportunity line support those.
The duties and credential lines are the two to write from your state's rule rather than from any template — states define the functions and the credential titles differently — and the template below shows what each block should say.
At a glance
restorative placement belongs in the ad only where the state's rule lets an EFDA place
Duties to list
Your state's list
certification, registration, permit or license — the title differs by state, and not every state issues one
Credential line
Name the state's own
all dental assistants in offices of dentists — BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS publishes no separate EFDA series
Pay to anchor on
$23.08/hr median
What to include
Open with a two-line summary that says what the seat is: an expanded functions dental assistant performing the expanded functions you delegate — where your state's rule allows restorative placement, that is the headline skill — in your setting, full or part time.
Keep the summary to two lines; it is the first block a candidate reads.
The duties list is the block to write from your state's rule, not from a template.
DANB says each state defines expanded functions differently, with common examples including applying sealants, taking impressions, coronal polishing, and applying topical anesthetic or topical fluoride.
Restorative placement belongs in the ad only where your state's rule lists it — Pennsylvania, Ohio and California all list it; not every state does.
The named examples show how much the lists differ.
In Pennsylvania, an EFDA may place and condense amalgam restorations, carve and contour amalgam, place and finish composite resin restorations and sealants, perform coronal polishing and fluoride treatments, and place rubber dams, matrices, wedges, liners and bases.
In Ohio, expanded function dental auxiliary practice includes placing amalgam and nonmetallic (including direct-bonded) restorative materials, sealants, and topical fluoride and fluoride varnish.
In California, an RDAEF licensed on or after January 1, 2010 may, under direct supervision, place, contour, finish and adjust all direct restorations, take final impressions for permanent indirect restorations, and perform post, core and build-up procedures.
Just as important is what the ad should not imply.
A Pennsylvania EFDA may not examine, diagnose or treatment plan, cut hard or soft tissue, administer local anesthesia, sedation or nitrous oxide analgesia, or make final occlusal approvals — posting that reads as solo dentistry sets your new hire up to collide with the rule in week one.
And the duties must be ones a credentialed person can perform at all: in California, pit and fissure sealants may be placed only by an RDA, RDAEF, RDH or RDHAP, not by an unlicensed assistant, so a sealant line in a California ad presumes the license behind it.
Say how the seat is supervised in the same breath as the duties.
Pennsylvania requires every EFDA service to run under a dentist's direct supervision: the dentist is in the office, personally diagnoses and authorizes the procedure, stays while it is performed, and evaluates the work before the patient is dismissed.
Ohio generally bars an EFDA from practicing when the supervising dentist is not physically present, with sealants and listed preventive services the exception.
Write your own state's version into the posting rather than leaving candidates to assume.
The requirements line names the credential that authorizes the functions you listed — a certification, registration, permit or license where your state issues one.
The titles do not travel: Pennsylvania certifies the expanded function dental assistant, Ohio registers the expanded function dental auxiliary, California licenses the registered dental assistant in extended functions, and DANB counts EFDA, Licensed Dental Assistant (LDA), Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) and RDAEF among the titles states use.
If you are still pinning down the credential itself, the career-side explainer of what an EFDA is covers it; the sourcing and screening decisions behind the seat are the how to hire an EFDA guide.
Keep a dated copy of the description you prepare before advertising: EEOC regulations list written job descriptions prepared before advertising or interviewing among the evidence of which functions are essential to a job.
While you write, keep the wording neutral — EEOC regulations name terms like "young" and "recent college graduate" as deterring older applicants, and an ad that indicates a preference based on sex violates Title VII unless sex is a bona fide occupational qualification for the job.
Close with the blocks candidates scan for: the pay range, the benefits you actually offer, the schedule with real days and hours, an equal-opportunity line if you use one — no federal rule requires it — and one clear way to apply.
The template
Paste this and replace the bracketed parts.
The duties lines and the credential line are the two to rewrite for your state — everything else is practice detail.
[PRACTICE NAME] — Expanded Functions Dental Assistant (EFDA) [USE YOUR STATE'S TITLE — e.g., EFDA, expanded function dental auxiliary, RDAEF] [FULL-TIME / PART-TIME] | [CITY, STATE] About the role [PRACTICE NAME] is hiring an expanded functions dental assistant to perform the clinical work our dentists delegate — restorative and preventive care where your state's rule allows — chairside, in a [SOLO / GROUP] practice. You will work under [THE SUPERVISION MODEL YOUR STATE'S RULE REQUIRES — Pennsylvania, for example, requires direct supervision: the dentist diagnoses and authorizes each procedure, stays in the office while it is performed, and evaluates the work before the patient leaves]. What you will do - Place and finish direct restorations [KEEP THIS LINE ONLY IF YOUR STATE'S RULE LETS AN EFDA PLACE THEM] - Place sealants, perform coronal polishing and apply fluoride [MATCH TO YOUR STATE'S LIST] - Take impressions [FINAL IMPRESSIONS ONLY WHERE YOUR STATE ALLOWS THEM] - Place rubber dams, matrices, wedges, liners and bases [TRIM TO WHAT YOUR STATE DELEGATES] - Chairside assisting: set-up and breakdown, charting - Clean and heat-sterilize critical dental instruments before each use What we require - [THE EXPANDED-FUNCTIONS CREDENTIAL YOUR STATE ISSUES — certification, registration, permit or license; confirm the exact title with your state dental board] - Current BLS certification [WHERE YOUR STATE REQUIRES IT] - [NUMBER] years of chairside experience [PREFERRED — DROP IF YOU WILL TRAIN] - [YOUR STATE'S RADIOGRAPHY REQUIREMENT, IF THE SEAT INCLUDES X-RAYS] Pay and benefits - $[RANGE] per hour, based on experience - [HEALTH COVERAGE / PTO / CE ALLOWANCE / RETIREMENT — LIST WHAT YOU OFFER] Schedule - [DAYS AND HOURS], [ANY LATE DAYS OR SATURDAYS] To apply [ONE METHOD — AN EMAIL ADDRESS OR A LINK] [OPTIONAL EEO LINE — NO FEDERAL RULE REQUIRES ONE IN A PRIVATE JOB AD] [PRACTICE NAME] is an equal opportunity employer.
The credential line is where a copied template does the most damage: the title, the issuer and the route to earning it all change at the state line.
In Pennsylvania, one listed route to EFDA certification is a Board-approved EFDA certificate program of at least 200 hours of clinical and didactic instruction from an accredited program of dental assisting.
Ohio registration takes a $25 application fee, board-specified education at an accredited institution, a passed competency exam and current BLS certification.
California's RDAEF license sits on a current RDA license plus fingerprints, a board-approved extended functions program, current BLS, a pit and fissure sealant course and a written exam.
Not every state issues a formal credential of its own.
Kentucky recognizes no EDDA or EFDA titles, and the Kentucky Board of Dentistry issues no formal authorization for dental assistant expanded duties — verifying the assistant's training is the employing dentist's responsibility, so a requirements line there promises your own verification rather than a state credential.
Georgia's expanded-duty credential is a certificate issued by the sponsor of the accredited course, not a board license.
Before you finalize the line, confirm your own state's rule with your state dental board.
Applications may also arrive from assistants credentialed nationally rather than in your state.
DANB's Certified Restorative Functions Dental Assistant (CRFDA) certification covers restorative functions, impressions, sealants and temporaries, and its Certified Preventive Functions Dental Assistant (CPFDA) covers coronal polishing, sealants and topical fluoride — worth reading for what the candidate has proven, even where your state's own credential is what permits the work.
On pay, there is no EFDA wage series to quote: BLS publishes a single dental-assistant series and has no separate occupation for the expanded-functions specialties.
Anchor on the all-dental-assistant data and your own market.
In offices of dentists, dental assistants earned a median $23.08 an hour ($48,000 a year) in the May 2025 OEWS release, with the 10th percentile at $17.83 and the 90th at $29.83, across 354,900 jobs.
Posted pay is a separate measure — what ads offer, not what assistants earned: practices hiring dental assistants on DentistryHires posted an employer median of $23.50 an hour across 1,305 employers, and the middle half of listings offered $21.00 to $26.00, as of October 6, 2026.
Decide the range line deliberately.
DentistryHires counted 14 states plus DC requiring a pay range in job postings as of October 6, 2026, and 93.8% of dental listings in those states stated pay; across all dental assistant listings, 78.4% (of 4,136) stated a rate or range.
Check where your state stands in the dental pay transparency data, and put a real range in the ad either way.
Hiring the unexpanded seat alongside this one?
The dental assistant job description template covers a chairside assistant without expanded functions.
After you post
Post it with the range stated and the duties spelled out, then let the general rules of writing a dental job ad — structure, keywords, what turns candidates off — do their work; this seat is no different from any other on that front.
Before the first shift, verify the credential with its issuer rather than with the résumé.
DANB's Verify Credentials tool confirms DANB national certifications, national exam certificates, and DANB-administered state certificates in Arizona and Oregon.
State board searches cover the state-issued credentials — Maryland's license search, for example, lists general and orthodontic expanded function dental assistants alongside dentists and hygienists.
Check currency too: in Missouri, an expanded functions permit not renewed within one year of its expiration date is void.
And treat verification as the duty it is: in Nevada, it is unprofessional conduct for a dentist who owns a practice to fail to verify an expanded function dental assistant's license before offering employment or a contractor agreement.
File what your state makes you keep — Georgia requires the employer of an expanded duty dental assistant to have a copy of the course certificate readily available in the office — and if you cover continuing education, say so in the ad.
Keeping Pennsylvania's 10 hours per biennial period or Wisconsin's 12 hours per renewal paid for is a concrete, budgetable benefit for the person holding the credential.
However the first call goes, the questions to be ready for are about the duties and the supervision: have your state's rule in front of you — which functions you are delegating, and how the work gets checked before the patient is dismissed — and answer both in that call.
Ready to post it?
Your listing goes in front of dental assistants actively looking, and you can edit it after it is live.