Certificate III in Dental Assisting course (HLT35021)

HLT35021 Certificate III in Dental Assisting

Institute of Allied Health is a trading name for the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors Pty Ltd and qualifications are awarded by AIPC (RTO Provider Number 0670).

This Cert III in Dental Assisting is delivered online. You can study your online Certificate III full-time, part-time, or at your own pace. Full-time study typically takes approximately 12 months.

This dental assistant course has a work placement component. This involves 350 hours in the workplace, with some time spent at home completing activities that contribute to assessment.

To achieve this dental assisting qualification, students are required to complete 350 hours of compulsory practical placement, with some time spent at home completing activities that contribute to assessment.

You can choose your work placement location, but it needs Institute approval based on course requirements. We can help you find a suitable workplace if you are struggling to locate one.

To obtain entry to this online dental assistant course, you need to demonstrate completion of at least Year 10 (or equivalent) and be at least 16 years of age. 

This course is not available to international students. 

Discounted upfront payments $2490 (normally $3115- save 20%)

Fortnightly payments $129/fortnight x 26 payments

A dental assistant supports the dentist chairside during treatment and keeps the surgery ready for the next patient. You’ll prepare patients for procedures, pass instruments during treatment, sterilise reusable equipment and apply infection control practices throughout the day. Many dental assistants also take on administrative work, like booking appointments and keeping patient records updated.

Employers hiring dental assistants usually look for the Certificate III in Dental Assisting, a nationally recognised qualification covering chairside assisting, infection control, dental radiography and practice administration. You can enrol with Year 10 or equivalent from age 16, so no prior dental experience is needed to start. Assistants already working in a practice often continue into the Certificate IV in Dental Assisting. 

Yes. Employers may hire dental assistants without prior dental experience, particularly candidates who hold a nationally recognised qualification. To enrol, you need to have completed Year 10 or equivalent and be at least 16 years old. You’ll also complete 350 hours of work placement during the course, so you’ll finish with hands-on experience in a working dental practice. 

You’ll complete 10 nationally recognised units covering the clinical and administrative work of a dental practice. We teach you how to:

• Assist the dentist chairside during procedures

• Prepare patients and set up materials for treatment

• Clean, sterilise and maintain reusable medical devices and equipment

• Apply infection prevention and control practices in a clinical setting

• Assist with dental radiography, including positioning patients safely

• Book appointments and maintain patient records at the front desk

• Communicate with patients, colleagues and other health professionals

• Contribute to workplace health and safety

Yes. We deliver all the theory online, so you can study full-time, part-time or at your own pace and finish in about 12 months. Your assessor does need to watch you work chairside in person, so you’ll have to complete 350 hours of practical work placement in a dental practice. Besides that component, you can complete everything online. You can also do your placement hours as you work through the online material.

Yes. Every student completes 350 hours of compulsory work placement, which works out to an average of around 12 hours a week throughout the course. You’ll do part of that work at home, writing up the activities your supervisor observed during the practice. The rest you’ll do at a placement location you choose, subject to our approval against the course requirements. We can help you find a suitable practice if you’re struggling to secure one.

Yes, the two titles describe the same role in Australia. Employers advertise for dental assistants and dental nurses interchangeably, though dental assistant is the standard Australian term and dental nurse carries over from British usage. Neither title requires registration with the Dental Board of Australia, unlike dental hygienists and oral health therapists, who have to register before practising within their own defined scope. 

Dental assistants in Australia record median weekly earnings of $1,211*, or approximately $63,000** a year, according to Jobs and Skills Australia. That’s only one source though, and the spread is much wider as advertised and self-reported figures land higher or lower depending on how each source gathers and calculates its numbers. This is how different sources report dental assistant salaries in Australia:

• Jobs and Skills Australia: The Australian Government compiles this occupation profile from ABS Census and Labour Force Survey data, so it covers everyone employed in the occupation. Dental assistants record median weekly earnings of $1,211*, which works out to approximately $63,000** a year. Worth noting that 58% of dental assistants work part-time hours per JSA data, which pulls the median below what a full-time worker would take home. 

• SEEK: Employers post salary information in their job ads, which SEEK aggregates to calculate a typical figure for each role. SEEK lists average annual salaries for dental assistants at $65,000 to $75,000*. Advertised figures skew towards experienced candidates, since employers generally name the salary they expect to pay a strong applicant.

• PayScale: Workers complete an online questionnaire about their own pay, so the sample mixes part-time, casual, entry-level and experienced respondents together. PayScale reports an average base salary of $52,510* a year, with a range of $37,000 to $63,000* for part-time and full-time positions.

*These figures are indicative ranges only. We accessed Jobs and Skills Australia, SEEK, PayScale and Indeed in August 2026. Each source updates its data regularly, so check the original pages for current figures. Your own earnings will vary with your experience, your location, your employer and the hours you work.

**Jobs and Skills Australia publishes this figure as median weekly earnings. We multiplied $1,211 by 52 weeks to reach $62,972, rounded to the nearest thousand, so you can compare it against the annual figures from the other sources.