u/Virtual_Airline3585

sat down with my spreadsheet this weekend trying to figure out whether to push for a raise at my current office or just start applying elsewhere, and I realized I have no real data on what part time assistants are actually getting paid per hour. job postings either don't list a rate or they list a range so wide it's useless.

I've been at my current place long enough that I'm not starting from zero anymore. I know the flow, I know the doctor's preferences, I'm faster than I was, and none of that has turned into a conversation about pay. I don't know if that's on me for not pushing, or if that's just how dental offices work where nothing changes unless you force it.

The thing I keep running into is that negotiating feels different in a small office with like three people on staff. It's not a corporation, it's personal, and I think a lot of assistants just absorb that discomfort and stay at whatever they started at for way longer than they should.

Curious what actually worked for people who did push for more. Did timing matter? Did you wait for a review, bring it up out of nowhere, or find a competing offer and use that as leverage?

EDIT: not asking what I should be paid, asking how people actually had the conversation.

I’m part time at a dental office and I’ve developed a really bad habit of doing the math in my head every time we’re running behind.

Like it’s 4:45, I’m supposed to leave at 5, and then I see the last patient is a 4:30 who hasn’t even been seated yet. Immediately my brain is like okay cool, there goes dinner prep and whatever I thought I was doing tonight lol.

I don’t mind staying late once in a while. That’s healthcare and things happen. What gets me is how quickly an extra 20-30 minutes here and there adds up when you’re part time and specifically built your schedule around having those hours free.

I actually started tracking my scheduled hours vs the hours I’m physically at the office because I already track basically everything in spreadsheets. The difference wasn’t massive, but seeing it totaled over a couple months was definitely an “oh” moment.

It also made me realize I care way more about a predictable end time now than I did when I worked more hours.

Any other part time DAs feel this way? Not really complaining, I’m just curious if everyone eventually stops believing the time printed next to the last patient on the schedule lol.

genuinely curious because i feel like i rotate through the same 4 or 5 things and two of them i already dread opening by thursday. i work part time and money is tight so i cannot afford to prep something that ends up in the trash because i got tired of it by day 3. that is basically just throwing cash in the bin.

right now my goto that has never let me down is chicken thighs with roasted sweet potatoes and whatever green vegetable is on sale that week. i have made it probably 15 times at this point and it still does not feel like a punishment to eat. the chicken thighs are the key for me because they stay moist after reheating unlike breast which turns into rubber by tuesday.

the thing i am trying to figure out is whether there is something i am missing that is equally cheap, holds up well in the fridge for 4 to 5 days, and does not require me to spend two hours on a sunday doing prep. my budget for the whole week of lunches is under 25 dollars so that rules out a lot of stuff people post here.

what is the one thing you have made at least 10 times and still reach for.

part time hours caught up with me this week in a way I couldn't ignore. ran my actual take home for the month against my fixed expenses and the number was bad. not surprising exactly, but seeing it written down in a spreadsheet is different than just knowing it in the back of your head.

the thing is I like the work. I'm good at it. the office isn't a nightmare. but part time dental assistant pay without benefits is a very specific kind of financial situation where you're putting in real physical effort, dealing with actual stress, learning constantly, and the number at the end of the month just does not reflect any of that.

I've been looking at whether picking up a second part time somewhere is realistic or if I should be pushing harder for full time hours at my current place. the problem is dental offices don't always have full time available, and pushing for it can make things weird depending on the doctor.

curious if anyone else has had to sit down and really think through whether this career path makes sense financially long term, or if you found a way to make the math work without leaving the field entirely. not looking for a pep talk, just want to know what other people actually did.

EDIT: to clarify I'm not planning to quit tomorrow, I just want real information from people who've been here

We have this one HVE tip holder mounted on the unit that is literally held together with what looks like old utility wax somebody just slapped on there one day and it became permanent. Nobody talks about it. Nobody replaces it. It just lives there.

Got me thinking about how every office has that one thing. The chair that makes a noise but still works so nobody calls the tech. The light that flickers for like two seconds when you turn it on. The tray with a chip in it from probably 2011.

There's something about dental offices specifically where stuff gets run into the ground before anyone addresses it. The bar for something being "broken" is whether it stops working completely, not whether it's sketchy or inefficient.

The wax situation really got to me today because a patient noticed it and kind of stared at it for a second and I had nothing to say. Just acted like it wasn't there.

Curious if this is a small office thing or if it happens at bigger practices too. And if anyone has actually gotten their office to replace something before total failure, I want to know how you made that case.

Had a patient last week reach into their mouth midimpression and pull out a partial they never mentioned having. Just handed it to me like it was completely normal. No warning, no words, just plopped it right in my gloved hand and looked at me expecting me to carry on like nothing happened.

Been doing this long enough that it shouldn't surprise me anymore, but somehow it still does every time. The handoffs are always so calm from their end too, like they do this regularly and we're the weird ones for being caught off guard.

A coworker told me about a patient who handed her a full set of notes about how the previous office had wronged them, right in the middle of a bitewing. Just slid it across the counter without breaking eye contact.

Curious what other people have gotten handed midappointment because I feel like this sub has some stories. The impression one at least had a somewhat logical reason behind it, even if the execution was terrible. Some of the stuff I've heard from other offices makes zero sense and that's honestly the more interesting category.