Dentist cover letter example

You are possibly sitting there wondering how you can communicate the precision and skill of your dentistry in a cover letter to impress a potential new practice boss. As with many medical professions, you can’t exactly give a live demo of your orthodontic skills, but this dentist cover letter example will try to show you how you can achieve the next best thing.

According to the CDC, 63% of adult Americans visited the dentist in 2020 and while that figure will vary for every country, it is clear that dentists play a vital role in the health of their fellow citizens. 85.9% of children visited over the same period, so there is a drop off of 26% when people hit adulthood…. Maybe because not all dentists offer a great service, and some patients are scarred for life? 

Well, we are sure that this does not apply to you, but while a dentist’s resume details the factual aspects of their career, it is well worth considering our dentist cover letter example guide to understand the different perspective that a cover letter offers. 

It is great that 100% of your patients are happy with their orthodontic treatment, but what are the reasons for that satisfaction? How is their dental experience unique when they sit in your chair? How do you make them feel as the saliva starts to drip out of the side of their mouth? Just kidding – your four-handed team has got that covered, right?

These subtleties and many more are covered in Resume.io’s dentist cover letter example, showing the owners of dental practices how you would be a great addition to their teams. Your patients walk out smiling their best smile. This guide, alongside our free cover letter samples will make sure that you guarantee that interview.

In this dentist cover letter example, alongside advice from seasoned recruiters, we will explore the following ways of highlighting your chairside achievements:

• Creating the ideal cover letter format that shines a light on your career
• Which achievements you can include in each dentist cover letter section (header, greeting, intro, body and conclusion)
• Finding ways of transporting the hiring manager into that treatment room – using the right language to get inside their heads.
• How to explore the positive aspects of your application and which mistakes to avoid

Dentists find it easier to write their resume as it is more suited to facts and figures around the nature of their career, but a cover letter should be written at the same time as it is more about the personal approach of the dentist and how they make their patients feel. There are few professions where customer satisfaction is more important and impactful on the success of a business. Our dentist resume example is full of advice that may also be useful in writing your cover letter, so it may well be worth a read.

So how do you go about structuring your dentist cover letter?

Best format for a dentist cover letter

There is a set process for everything that a dentist does, with little margin for originality, so any dentist’s cover letter might be expected to be just as rigidly structured. A stream of consciousness letter that rambles and waffles might not quite give the right impression.

The format of a dentist cover letter should contain these sections:

• The cover letter header
• The greeting / salutation
• The cover letter intro
• The middle paragraphs (body of the letter)
• The end paragraph of the cover letter (conclusion and sign-off)

Each section of the cover letter contains specific types of messages and there are certain ways that you might choose to start and end the cover letter. You can include accomplishments in the text of the letter or you might choose to put a list of bullet points with strong action verbs at the beginning. 

Our how to write a cover letter guide offers deeper advice and links to a number of helpful articles around the topic, but this guide is intended to explore the cover letter example specifics for dentists in particular. Read the job description and make sure that your letter makes the most specific case possible for the role.

This dentist cover letter sample is adaptable for the specifics of your role:

While the above cover letter sample might not perfectly reflect your experience, it is worth considering whether the tone and feel of the letter is right for your application. You should adopt a professional voice, use dentistry language wherever possible and imagine it as the start of a job search conversation with your future dentistry practice boss. 

Cover letter header

As you can see in the cover letter example, the cover letter header is probably the first thing that grabs your attention. We are hard-wired to notice separate sections before delving into the detail of a long piece of text. In this case, that is a good thing.

The cover letter header contains the name, email, and phone of the dentistry candidate and when a practice manager has scanned them, they will subconsciously tick the box that they can contact the candidate immediately if needed. If the cover letter does not contain these details, they may be worrying that they will have to find them in the resume. Let them focus on the important messages in the letter rather than such basic considerations.

The aim of the cover letter header: Make sure that you check and double check these contact details and ensure that your email isn’t the “joke” one that you use with your friends.

Cover letter greeting

A polite and semi-formal attitude is essential for any dentist, so addressing patients and colleagues in the correct way is important. In a cover letter, this can be reflected in ensuring that the greeting is appropriate.

The cover letter example includes the typical “Dear Mr. Fisher'' variant, which will be used on the majority of cover letters. Finding out the name of the practice manager is not difficult as it involves a brief call or a visit to the website. Not getting this right is the height of laziness and will reflect very badly on any dentist’s job prospects.

If you cannot find to whom it should be addressed (for example in a speculative application), then “Dear Princeton Practice team” is a valid and friendly option. Do not use the formal and somewhat antiquated “To whom it may concern” as that sounds a little cold and indifferent.

The aim of the cover letter greeting / salutation: Follow the cover letter example by picking the most appropriate greeting to get your letter off to a great start.

Cover letter introduction

After getting the basics right, a swift glance at the cover letter example will show you that the cover letter introduction is where you can start to set yourself apart from your maxillofacial peers. What is it about your application that will impress the most? Your ability to delight your patients? The success of your orthodontic treatments with the local teenagers? Your ability to work with and develop your four-handed team?

Sticking closely to the key requirements of the job description is essential in your introductory paragraph, but essentially you have the freedom to unleash your dentistry big guns. What can you say that would make a practice manager want to read more? 

The intro that we offer in our basic cover letter sample above offers an illustration:

“Averaging 120+ teenage orthodontic patients at any one time over my five-year dental career has taught me much about teenage psychology. You work together towards a result by understanding how the treatment is benefiting your mouth and how your behaviors can bring about that perfect smile. My patients were discharged 22% sooner than the practice average – something that I hope to repeat at Brookmore.”

What compelling fact, unique achievement or personal insight can you share? Offer a sense of scale, compare with your other dentist peers and project an aura of experience by telling your future boss just how much time you have spent next to that familiar chair. You will see in the cover letter sample that there are numbers that quantify achievement scattered throughout the text.

A cover letter is not merely a list of duties or responsibilities – it is a collection of “story beginnings” that you will hopefully continue at the interview. Including figures is a great way of making them unique and prompting the hiring manager to think that most alluring of thoughts: “I wonder how they did that?”

The aim of the cover letter introduction: Choose the dental story that you want to shape the rest of your application. Make the hiring manager want to find out more and read on.

Cover letter middle part (body)

The language of the middle of a dentist’s cover letter should read like a medical journal. You have to use the terminology that you would be using with your colleagues next to the chair, talking about the sorts of situations that you can see cropping up in your future role.

Put yourself in the place of the dental practice manager and consider their biggest questions when they are hiring a new dentist. Will they be able to handle the volume of patients? How much maxillofacial experience do they have and what is the profile of patients that they usually treat? When they work in a four-handed team, how do they bring their colleagues together? What would patients say about their chairside manner? 

These are only a few examples, but if a certain practice manager does not see answers to their particular “big questions” in the content of a cover letter and resume, then doubts will remain when it comes to the choice of whom to invite to interview. You can’t cover all the bases, but take the most educated guess possible. You can tell when someone has put some thought into a piece of writing.

Describe your accomplishments rather than lazily outlining your responsibilities. The majority of applicants will think that parroting the job description is a great way of demonstrating that they are a fit for the role, but with the specifics you risk fading into the mediocrity of the crowd. The more specific your story can be, the more memorable you will be. You don’t have to tell the whole story – just enough to arouse curiosity for the interview stages.

A solid technique for getting the most out of a story for the middle part of your cover letter is the STAR technique. You explore the Situation and Task that was at hand, consider the Action that you undertook and the Result that came about. Here is a relevant example from our cover letter example:

“After two colleagues left in quick succession, I took responsibility for 60% more teenage orthodontic patients. I trained my dental assistant in more complicated procedures and worked 14 more hours a week until replacements were found. Our surgery was commended from the head office for its responsiveness.”

The cover letter middle part is all about outlining what difference you have made.

The aim of the body of the cover letter: How will hiring you make a difference to the dentist practice? Which of your career stories will be most relevant?

How to close a dentist cover letter (conclusion and sign-off)

There are many ways to f inish off a cover letter with a polished flourish, but for a dentist, it is important to convey extra elements of professionalism and skill. Be confident in what you are sharing and be brave enough to ask for the opportunity of an interview.

As a cover letter is a more personal appeal, offering a sense of how you are with your colleagues and patients brings a warmth that can then continue into your first interview. If you make a practice manager feel something when they are reading your words, that is so much more powerful than just spelling out cold facts about your career.

“Sincerely” or “Best regards” are standard ways of finishing off any cover letter and there is little reason to stray from these conventional variants.

The aim of this section: Finish the cover letter on a confident note, ask for the interview and leave your future boss with a positive last impression.

Writing psychology and mistakes to avoid

Attention to detail and pride in a job well done are key attributes of any dentist, so in terms of how their cover letter might be received, there are certain aspects of the role that should be reflected in the writing. Equally important is a focus on avoiding some common mistakes that could take the spotlight away from your dentistry stories.

When there are fifty applicants for a role, you have to think about your writing from every angle. Here are three qualities that you might notice in our cover letter sample:

• Precision: Your stories have to hint at an exacting way of going about your work. Going the extra mile in a certain treatment technique or being particularly detailed in how you explain dental care to patients – it all contributes to a great level of service.
• Patient care: Not many people enjoy going to the dentist, so patient care has to be at the very heart of a cover letter. It is hard to convey in the more rigid structure of a resume, so don’t neglect a sentence or two about this in the cover letter.
• Technical expertise: Throwing in a couple of the trickier procedures is always a great way of impressing a practice manager. You have to be able to demonstrate that you can handle a demanding day of technical challenges next to the chair.

Key takeaways

1. Weave a story that includes both your technical expertise and patient care.
2. Show the practice manager how you work in a four-handed dentistry team.
3. Use the right industry vocabulary and action verbs to bring experience to life.
4. Create a logical flow of your dentistry story by structuring the cover letter.
5. Use our cover letter examples as inspiration for your own persuasive writing!

With Resume.io, writing your dentist cover letter is easy. Choose one of our ready-made and carefully-researched cover letter templates and start writing.