I remember my first day at a dental office. The front desk was understaffed and I was there to help! … Eventually. First, I had to learn my role: what do I say when I answer the phone and what exactly does prophylaxis mean?
My team members did not have time. They were running as fast as they could: verifying insurance, doing treatment plans, helping with perio charting, and talking to patients. They handed me a phone, told me where I could add patients and where I could not, and showed me how to mark a patient as present for their appointment. I made a lot of mistakes. By the end of the day, I was so stressed out I went home and googled dental training for an hour.
But not much showed up. A couple of big names that were built to be used by entire offices (and charged with that in mind) and consultants who billed more than my first paycheck for one on one consulting. I just needed a little help! Where were the quick articles or the digital guides on how to do this job?
Over time, I got more comfortable in my role.
One of my coworkers set aside her lunch hour and spent the time going through the dental models with me and explaining what the different procedures were for. I started calling insurance companies with an insurance verification template, and I learned what questions to ask- especially when I did not have enough information to do a treatment plan on demand.
I want to repeat something here: I made a lot of mistakes.
Too many, honestly. Being new to the front desk at a dental practice means costing the office money with your mistakes or causing your manager stress when she has to catch them. Nearly ten years later, and I remember the frustration of those first few months and the feeling that if I could just find affordable resources, I could succeed.
Under-training at the front desk leads to insurance mix-ups, angry patients, employee burnout, and doctor stress.
In my time in the dental field, I have worked every role there is at the front desk. I moved to remote dental work in 2020, focusing on helping offices clean up their insurance aging reports and fix their billing concerns. I have helped develop training programs for remote billers moving from in-office dental positions. And now, finally, it is time for me to go back to that feeling I had when I first started out and develop training materials for front office staff just starting out.
Flawless Front Office: Front Office Roles is full of terminology and graphics to help educate you on the basics of dentistry and the role you play on a daily basis. The e-book starts off with an overview of the five main roles at the front desk:
- Reception
- Insurance Verification
- Treatment Coordination
- Finance Coordination
- Insurance Coordination
In order to expand upon these roles, some basic understanding of dental anatomy and disease is needed.
The next chapters of the e-book review the anatomy of the mouth, anatomy of the tooth, the two most common forms of dental disease, and the terminology usually associated with dental decay.
The middle of the e-book is an in depth review of dental coding and how each code is used. This includes a printable list of the most commonly used dental codes (this is also available as a standalone bundle on our site: Dental Coding Bundle).
Armed with knowledge, we return to the front office roles and cover each in depth, including a new patient info sheet and a new patient insurance verification form (both also available as separate listings from the full book: New Patient Sheets).
My goal with Flawless Front Office is accessible, affordable dental front office training materials for individuals OR offices.
I hope you take the time to check it out!
Flawless Front Office: Front Office Roles E-Book
Please use code ffolaunch to discount the e-book cost from $99 to $79 through the end of the month of July 2025!