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Top Dental Assistant Programs in San Diego

San Diego, which bears the distinction of being the second largest city in California, is home to one dental assisting training program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA). It is administered by San Diego Mesa College, a public two-year institution partly named after the elevated area of land upon which it is perched. Founded in 1964, SD Mesa is part of the San Diego Community College District, in addition to being one of the 112 community colleges in the state. The program from SD Mesa is also accredited by the Dental Board of California (DBC).

radiology tech schoolsDental Assistant Programs in San Diego

Dental assisting students at SD Mesa have two training choices. The shorter, less elaborate Certificate of Achievement in Dental Assisting track has a curriculum, which consists of 35 credits. The certificate track is split into the Summer, Fall, and Spring semesters; students only need a year to complete the program. Upon completion the student is awarded a Certificate of Achievement, as well as a Certificate of Performance to operate dental x-ray equipment in the State of California. The other choice, the Associate of Science degree in Dental Assisting, requires twice the amount of time for completion; electives are added to the curriculum to bring the number of required credits to 60. After graduation, students can take the California Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) boards and the Certified Dental Assistant (CDA) examination.

Salaries for Dental Aid/Assistant Schools in San Diego

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) includes San Diego in an area the agency designates as San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, where dental care assistants made an annual mean salary of $37,480 in 2012. For the state, the annual median wage was $35,600 ($17.11 per hour) that same year, with the bottom 10 percent making $24,000 ($11.54 per hour) and top 10 percent making $52,200 ($25.12 per hour). In 2010, the BLS reported that there were 3,250 dental care assistants in the San Diego area — barely 1 percent of the total number of dental care assistants in the state. The BLS expects a 12 percent growth between 2010 and 2020 for California. 

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