Pediatric Dental Assistant Job Description Template

A summary that says who sits in your chairs.

Two lines on the practice: how many chairs, open bay or one-on-one, the ages you see, and whether you treat patients with special health care needs.

If your schedule differs from a general-practice one — early mornings, after-school blocks, sedation or hospital days — say so before they apply.

The assistant-side view of the role is in the pediatric dental assistant career guide, and if you are also hiring the dentist, start from the pediatric dentist job description.

Duties in two groups.

List what any trained assistant does — seating, tray setups, sterilization, chart notes, keeping the schedule moving — separately from the expanded functions your state restricts — the ones that take a permit, certification or specific supervision.

States define those differently; the common examples DANB names are applying sealants, taking impressions, coronal polishing, and applying topical anesthetic or topical fluoride.

The split lets candidates screen themselves and keeps the posting from implying you delegate something your state does not allow.

In a pediatric office the parent-facing work is a duty in its own right — pre-visit instructions, post-op follow-up and treatment-plan conversations deserve their own line.

The permit line your state actually requires, by its exact name.

This is where generic templates mislead.

States use different titles for the expanded-functions level of assisting — EFDA, LDA, RDA and RDAEF, per DANB — and the gate is tied to the duty: a permit or certification for that duty, or a license level that carries it.

Of the states this page checked, x-rays, sealants, coronal polishing and nitrous oxide each carry their own requirement in at least one; the state notes below the template cover them.

If the role includes x-rays, name your state's radiography requirement as its own line.

Write the duties down before you advertise — and keep the file.

EEOC regulations list a written job description prepared before advertising among the evidence of which functions are essential to a job (29 CFR 1630.2(n)(3)) — one more reason to describe what the person actually does, not a wishlist.

A pay range, not "DOE."

Fourteen states plus DC required a pay range in job postings as of October 6, 2026, per DentistryHires' pay-transparency law list, and 78.4% of the 4,136 dental assistant listings DentistryHires analyzed that day stated a rate or range anyway.

Put the number in the template's pay line and mirror it in the first screen; the figures to frame it with are below.

A schedule and the closing line.

State the days and hours, and flag what is specific to a pediatric schedule — early mornings before school, after-school blocks, and any monthly sedation or hospital days.

Close with an equal-opportunity line if you use one — the wording rules are covered below.

For the craft that applies to any dental role — structure, phrasing, where to post — see writing a dental job ad; this page is the pediatric-specific template.

The template above is the structure; what follows changes by state.

The rest of the process — sourcing, screening, offers — is in how to hire a pediatric dental assistant.

The permit line, state by state.

The states this page verified assistant rules for are Arkansas, North Dakota, Tennessee, Minnesota, Colorado, Oklahoma, California, Ohio and Texas — states beyond those were not checked, so confirm your own with your dental board before you post.

None of the nine credentials a "pediatric dental assistant" as such — the rules their boards publish attach to specific duties, as the notes below show.

Arkansas requires a permit for four expanded duties: under Board rules, the assistant duties that need one are administering nitrous oxide/oxygen analgesia, operating dental radiographic equipment, coronal polishing, and monitoring patients under deep sedation or general anesthesia.

If an assistant monitors the patient on your sedation or hospital day, that is the permit to ask about.

North Dakota puts an RDA's pit-and-fissure sealant endorsement right on the registration card, while restorative, nitrous oxide and Class I/II anesthesia duties require separate board permits renewed with the registration — two different things to check.

Tennessee requires board-issued certifications before an RDA performs coronal polishing, dental radiology, nitrous oxide monitoring, sealant application, prosthetic functions or restorative functions, and the board's verification site shows each additional certification.

Nitrous oxide and sedation.

In Colorado, a dental assistant may administer and monitor nitrous oxide under a dentist's direct supervision, following Board rules (Colorado Revised Statutes 12-220-501(3)(c)).

Minnesota's rule checked here is about sedation: under Minnesota Rules 3100.3600, dental therapists, dental hygienists and licensed dental assistants may not administer general anesthesia, deep sedation, moderate sedation or minimal sedation.

This page did not verify Minnesota's nitrous oxide rule, so confirm it with the Minnesota board.

OSHA's anesthetic-gas guidelines, meanwhile, are advisory — no new legal obligations, though the General Duty Clause still applies to recognized hazards.

Oklahoma codes expanded functions on the assistant's board verification record — XR for x-ray, CP for coronal polishing, SE for sealant and N2O for nitrous oxide — so the record shows which duties a candidate is cleared for.

California is the caution for a preventive-heavy pediatric schedule: pit and fissure sealants may be placed only by an RDA, RDAEF, RDH or RDHAP — not by an unlicensed dental assistant (California Business and Professions Code section 1750.1(f)).

Ohio lets a dental assistant apply sealants after certification (DANB, OCDAC or AMT) and a course of at least 2 hours didactic and 6 hours clinical, once the supervising dentist has observed six successful applications — and the dentist checks each sealant before the patient leaves.

Texas delegates sealants to an assistant with at least two years of experience, current BLS and at least 8 hours of CODA-program sealant education, and a cleansing done for sealants may not be billed as a prophylaxis.

In both states a candidate's "yes" needs paperwork behind it.

The national signals to ask for.

Underneath the state permits, DANB's credentials show preparation: the CDA — three exams, held by more than 35,000 dental assistants — and two that map to pediatric preventive work, the Certified Preventive Functions Dental Assistant (CPFDA), covering coronal polishing, sealants and topical fluoride across three exams, and the Certified Restorative Functions Dental Assistant (CRFDA), covering restorative functions, impressions, sealants and temporaries across four.

What to quote for pay: BLS publishes no pediatric-assistant wage series — one occupational series, Dental Assistants (SOC 31-9091), covers the specialty titles alike, so a figure styled as a "BLS pediatric dental assistant salary" is not BLS data.

The benchmarks are for dental assistants overall.

BLS OEWS May 2025 for offices of dentists: median $23.08 an hour ($48,000 a year), 10th percentile $17.83, middle half $21.33 to $27.89, 90th percentile $29.83.

DentistryHires listing data for October 6, 2026: employer median $23.50 an hour across 1,305 employers and 2,651 listings with hourly pay, middle half $21.00 to $26.00.

Frame your range on those figures plus your local market, and do not bake in a "pediatric premium" — no published source we found splits pediatric assistant pay from the overall series, so there is no verified figure for one.

Whether you must post a range: fourteen states plus DC required one in job postings as of October 6, 2026, per DentistryHires' law list checked against statute text or state labor departments that day; in those states, 93.8% of dental listings stated pay.

The list changes, so check your state labor department's current rule before posting.

The EEO line — and the wording around it.

On the federal side, no rule requires a private employer to carry the tagline: the old federal ad-tagline rule applied only to federal contractors, and Executive Order 11246, which set it, was revoked in January 2025.

State law on EEO statements in ads was not part of that check, so confirm yours before dropping the line.

The wording rules apply either way: EEOC regulations say job ads may not contain terms that limit or deter older applicants — "age 25 to 35," "young," "college student," "recent college graduate," "boy" or "girl" — unless a statutory exception applies, and a help-wanted ad violates Title VII if it indicates a preference based on sex unless sex is a bona fide occupational qualification for the particular job.

The pediatric trap is "young" in your own summary — describe the patients and the work instead.

Verify before the first shift, against the issuing body.

State permits and certifications go through your dental board's verification system — Tennessee's shows each additional certification an RDA holds, and Oklahoma's codes each expanded function on the record.

DANB credentials check in DANB's Verify Credentials tool, which confirms national certifications, national exam certificates, and DANB-administered state certificates in Arizona and Oregon.

One credential does not vouch for another: an x-ray clearance says nothing about sealants or nitrous.

In Arkansas, put the paperwork up on day one: an assistant holding expanded-function permits is considered a Registered Dental Assistant, and the permits must be displayed in the dental office.

Keep the description you posted and the version you interviewed against.

It documents the duties you required, and it is the reference point for the first performance review.