Dental vs. Medical Assistant Salary?
December 8th, 2009 by admin
I am planning on taking some courses in Health Field. My Options are Dental Assistant, Medical Assistant or Medical Coding & Billing. I need to know which one of this career is more highly paid for a Starter with a Certificate/Diploma. I might be working in New Hampshire… Please, help!
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I’d say dental assistant. Typically dentists are in the smaller private practices, and that’s where the bigger profit happens. Of course it depends on the practice…
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Dental_Assistant/Hourly_Rate
Dental assistant^
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Medical_Assistant/Hourly_Rate
Medical assistant^
Dental assistants get payed more.
I would really look more at the job availability of any of those fields. I was under the impression that there’re not a lot of jobs for medical assistants or medical billers and coders. And just fyi, coders are said to need their certification(s) and 1-2 years experience or more to get a job as the company can get a pretty hefty fine if a claim is coded incorrectly. Please also think about what you would like to do at least 5 days a week, 8 hours a day to help you narrow down your viable options. Please do consider only going to a school that has an accredited program and is less expensive such as thru the county community college (perhaps non-credit course) or the local county vo-tech school.
Here is a website for general info on various careers: US occupational outlook handbook http://www.bls.gov/oco and can type into search ‘dental assistant’ or ‘medical assistant’ or such.
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DA’s typically make a few more dollars per hour than MA’s, plus they can specialize a bit more, and earn additional certifications.