Dental Receptionist job description
A complete, ready-to-post description for our dental practice. Add your business name, hours and pay range below, tick the duties that apply, and copy it into Indeed or your careers page.
Your job description
249 wordsDental Receptionist ABOUT THE ROLE [Company name] is hiring a dental receptionist to look after the front desk and the schedule. You'll book and confirm appointments, work the recall list, check patients in, handle insurance and payments, and fill gaps when someone cancels. A dental schedule only works if the chairs stay full, and this role is what keeps them full. WHAT YOU'LL DO • Answer and route incoming calls • Book, reschedule and confirm appointments • Greet visitors and sign them in • Take accurate messages and pass them on • Take payments and issue receipts • Verify insurance and collect co-pays • Maintain patient or client records • Complete new client or patient intake paperwork • Run recall and reactivation lists • Manage the waitlist and fill cancellations • Order and stock office supplies • Keep the reception area clean and presentable WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR • High school diploma or equivalent • Experience in a dental or medical practice, or a strong front-desk background • Comfortable with practice management and scheduling software • Confident discussing treatment costs, insurance coverage and payment plans • Organized enough to run recalls and reactivations consistently, not sporadically NICE TO HAVE • Experience with dental insurance claims and pre-authorizations • Knowledge of dental terminology and common treatment codes DETAILS • Employment type: Full-time TO APPLY Send your résumé and a short note about why this role suits you to [Company name]. We read every application and reply to all of them.
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What the role involves
We're hiring a dental receptionist to look after the front desk and the schedule. You'll book and confirm appointments, work the recall list, check patients in, handle insurance and payments, and fill gaps when someone cancels. A dental schedule only works if the chairs stay full, and this role is what keeps them full.
Core duties
- Answer and route incoming calls
- Book, reschedule and confirm appointments
- Greet visitors and sign them in
- Take accurate messages and pass them on
- Take payments and issue receipts
- Verify insurance and collect co-pays
- Maintain patient or client records
- Complete new client or patient intake paperwork
- Run recall and reactivation lists
- Manage the waitlist and fill cancellations
- Order and stock office supplies
- Keep the reception area clean and presentable
Requirements
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Experience in a dental or medical practice, or a strong front-desk background
- Comfortable with practice management and scheduling software
- Confident discussing treatment costs, insurance coverage and payment plans
- Organized enough to run recalls and reactivations consistently, not sporadically
Nice to have
- Experience with dental insurance claims and pre-authorizations
- Knowledge of dental terminology and common treatment codes
Skills to screen for
Be honest about the phone
In a dental practice the phone is the schedule. A cancellation at 9am is a gap at 2pm unless someone calls down the list and fills it, and the calls that fill it compete with the patients checking out at the desk.
Worth writing into the description rather than leaving as a surprise. Candidates who are good at it will recognize the description and apply; the ones who would have quit in month two will screen themselves out, which is the cheapest screening you will ever do.
What the hire actually covers
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the median receptionist wage at $38,010 a year ($18.27/hour) as of 2025, before employer payroll taxes, benefits and paid time off. Source.
For that you get 40 of the 168 hours in a week. The remaining 128 — evenings, weekends, lunch cover, sick days, holidays — are hours our dental practice still takes calls, and nobody is on the desk for them.
Hire the person. Just budget for the gap too, and work out what it's costing with the missed-call cost calculator.
Dental Receptionist FAQ
What does a dental receptionist do?+
Runs the schedule and the front desk: booking and confirming appointments, working recall and reactivation lists, checking patients in and out, handling insurance and payments, and filling cancellations. The schedule is the practice's revenue, so the role is closer to operations than to admin.
What makes a good dental receptionist?+
Comfort with money conversations and persistence with the recall list. Plenty of people are warm on the phone; far fewer will cheerfully ring thirty overdue patients on a Tuesday or explain a treatment plan's cost without flinching.
Should a dental receptionist handle insurance claims?+
In a small practice, usually yes — and it's worth saying so plainly in the posting, because it changes who applies. Claims and pre-authorizations are a distinct skill, and candidates who have done them will tell you so.
The other 128 hours
Hire the receptionist. Cover the rest of the week.
RingOwl answers the calls your front desk can't — after hours, at lunch, and on the second line when the first one's busy. It books appointments into your calendar, takes messages, and emails you a summary of every call.
7-day trial · 30 minutes included · No credit card.
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