Dental Assistant Salary in Wyoming: The Numbers and the Ladder

What dental assistants earn in Wyoming

The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the annual median wage for dental assistants in Wyoming at $44,990, about $21.63 an hour. That is $3,080 below the national median of $48,070. The annual mean is $44,100, $6,100 below the national mean of $50,200.

The spread matters more than the midpoint. In Wyoming the bottom tenth of dental assistants earn about $35,530 a year and the top tenth about $57,110. That is a gap of roughly $21,580, and it is the part of the picture a single average hides. Two assistants in the same city can sit at opposite ends of that range.

BLS counts about 630 dental assistants working in Wyoming, out of roughly 387,790 nationally.

Figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS, May 2025 estimates (bls.gov/oes/tables.htm).

What raises it in Wyoming

Wyoming does not licence or register dental assistants as a profession. You may be trained by your employer or through an accredited or board-approved dental assisting program, and then work under a licensed dentist. What Wyoming regulates is two specific acts, and it regulates each one with its own permit from the Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners.

The dental radiography permit is the one that gates daily work. You qualify by having completed, within the one year immediately before you apply, a CODA-accredited radiography course, the DANB Radiation Health and Safety exam, a radiography training course administered by a state dental association, or a course of at least eight hours that includes a competency assessment or examination and covers the subjects and clinical experience the rules specify. Alternatively, you can qualify by having been authorized to expose dental radiographs in another jurisdiction within the last five years. Then you apply to the board for the permit.

Two practical notes on that. As of May 2024 the board no longer pre-approves radiograph or sealant courses, so it is on you to confirm the course you choose meets the requirements in Chapter 7 of the board rules before you pay for it. And the board's stated processing time runs to several weeks once it has everything, so apply before you need the permit rather than after.

The pit and fissure sealant certificate is the second permit and it is not included in the first. You qualify by completing a board-approved sealant course meeting the didactic and clinical requirements within the one year immediately before you apply, or by completing a CODA-accredited dental hygiene or dental assisting program. The board also accepts DANB's Sealants exam. You then submit an application and a completed checklist showing competency and course completion. With the certificate you may place sealants under direct supervision.

Permits renew every two years in odd-numbered years, and if you hold both, they renew separately. That is an easy one to get wrong, and letting either lapse takes the corresponding work off your schedule.

Wyoming spells out three supervision levels and uses all of them, which matters more here than in most states because the same duty can move between them. Under general supervision, meaning the dentist need not be present, you may place and expose x-ray image receptors on the dentist's verbal or written order, process radiographs, instruct patients, take vital statistics and health histories, place and remove orthodontic separators, and fabricate and cement temporary crowns. Under indirect supervision, with the dentist physically present, you may apply topical medications, take impressions other than final or master impressions, insert arch wires the dentist has adjusted, and mix materials. Under direct supervision, where the dentist also approves the work before the patient is dismissed, you may polish the coronal surfaces of the teeth with a rubber cup, remove sutures, place and remove rubber dams and matrices, prepare and remove periodontal packs, and take impressions for orthodontic appliances.

Read the topical medication line carefully. It excludes pit and fissure sealants and silver diamine fluoride, so the sealant certificate is genuinely the only route to sealant placement. Note also that coronal polishing is permitted with a rubber cup only, and not for the purpose of prophylaxis. Anything billed as a dental prophylaxis is prohibited to assistants, as is removing tooth structure, using a high speed handpiece intraorally, using a low speed handpiece intraorally other than for coronal polishing, taking final impressions of any kind, and delivering a permanent prosthesis.

On nitrous oxide, Wyoming permits patient monitoring rather than administration. Where nitrous oxide anxiolysis, sedation or anesthesia is administered, all dental personnel must be certified in Basic Life Support for healthcare providers, and the dentist or permit holder may delegate patient monitoring to qualified dental personnel.

What experience and setting actually change

Nationally, BLS does publish a wage difference by employer type. Dental assistants in ambulatory health care services, which is where nearly all of them work, average $50,050 a year. Those working in hospitals average $54,860, and those in government settings average $56,640. Those are national figures, not Wyoming figures, and the government and hospital groups are small enough that you should read them as a hint, not a promise.

BLS does not publish wages by years of experience, and it does not publish a separate wage for assistants who hold a particular state permit. Anyone who gives you a precise number for either is estimating. What the percentile spread above does tell you is that the top of the range in Wyoming is real and someone is being paid it.

What to do next

Check your chosen radiography or sealant course against Chapter 7 of the board rules before paying, because the Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners stopped pre-approving courses in May 2024.

If you hold both the radiograph permit and the pit and fissure sealant certificate, renew them separately in odd-numbered years and treat them as two deadlines.

If you are not working in Wyoming yet, start with How to Become a Dental Assistant in Wyoming, which covers what the state lets you do on day one and what you have to earn before you can do more. For the national picture and the levers that apply everywhere, see How Much Do Dental Assistants Make?.

Common questions