The Ultimate Guide to Onboarding and Training in Dental Offices

The Ultimate Guide to Onboarding and Training in Dental Offices

If you’re part of a dental practice looking to streamline new hire training and training, you’re in the right place. In this guide, we’ll cover why onboarding and training matter for dental teams, best practices for building a consistent training experience, and how tools like Trainual can help you create a scalable, repeatable onboarding process that actually sticks.

Let’s dive in.

Understanding the importance of onboarding and training

In a dental practice, consistency matters — for patient care, compliance, and team performance. That’s why effective new hire training and training are foundational, not optional.

New hire training is the process of equipping employees with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to perform their role confidently and correctly. This goes beyond paperwork or shadowing — it’s about setting clear expectations and giving team members the tools to succeed.

training introduces new hires to how your practice operates: your policies, procedures, workflows, and culture. It ensures everyone understands not just what to do, but how and why things are done a certain way.

Together, training and training help new team members feel supported, aligned, and ready to contribute from day one.

Why onboarding and training matters in dental offices

Dental practices move fast — and without a clear training system, new hires can feel overwhelmed or unsure of expectations.

A strong onboarding and training process helps new team members:

• Understand your practice’s mission, values, and standards of care
• Integrate smoothly into existing workflows and systems
• Build confidence in their role and responsibilities
• Reduce errors and improve compliance with clinical and operational procedures
• Become productive members of the team faster

When training is consistent and well-documented, your practice benefits from better patient experiences, stronger team alignment, and fewer operational gaps.

Maintaining and improving your training program

Training isn’t a one-and-done event. The most effective practices treat it as a living system.

Keep training content up to date

Dental technology, regulations, and best practices evolve. Your training materials should too. Regular updates ensure team members always have access to current, accurate information.

Gather feedback from Your team

New hires are your best source of insight. Ask what helped, what felt unclear, and what could be improved — then use that feedback to refine your training program over time.

Continuous improvement builds a culture of learning and accountability.

Using Trainual to support dental team training

Now let’s look at how Trainual can support onboarding and training for dental teams.

What Is Trainual?

Trainual is a training and onboarding platform that helps teams document, organize, and deliver consistent training at scale.

With Trainual, dental practices can:

• Create step-by-step training content for roles and procedures
• Centralize training materials in one searchable system
• Track training completion and understanding
• Standardize onboarding across locations or departments

The result: less ad-hoc training, more consistency, and better outcomes for your team.

Why dental practices use Trainual for training

Dental teams use Trainual to:

• Save time by reducing repetitive, manual training
• Ensure every new hire receives the same core training
• Keep training engaging with videos, quizzes, and interactive content
• Document compliance-related training and procedures

Instead of relying on memory or tribal knowledge, practices can create a repeatable training system that grows with their team.

Setting up a training program with Trainual

Getting started

Start by identifying the core areas every new hire needs to understand — from clinical procedures to front-desk workflows. Break these topics into clear, digestible training modules so team members can learn at a steady pace.

Customize Trainual for your practice

Trainual allows you to tailor training content to match your practice’s workflows, standards, and culture. You can incorporate videos, quizzes, and real-world examples to reinforce learning and ensure clarity across roles.

The goal isn’t just to train faster — it’s to train better.

Ready to explore Trainual for dental onboarding and training? Get a demo.

Bonus: We'll add 20 dental and medical industry-specific, fully-baked onboarding, training, and training templates straight to your account! 🙌

1. Assisting Dental Procedures (Dental Practice)
2. Dental Care Billing
3. Front Desk Check-in Process (Dentist’s Office)
4. Hand Hygiene/Handwashing Process (Healthcare)
5. HIPAA Privacy & Security Standards Compliance Policy (Annual Training) (Dental Practice)
6. Infection Control and Sterilization Process (Dental Practice)
7. IT & Data Security Policy (Dental Practice)
8. Medical Emergency Response (Medical Office)
9. Medical Staff Dress Code Policy (Medical Office)
10. Onboarding & Orientation (Dental Practice)
11. OSHA Training for Dental Offices
    🔥 This template alone will save you thousands every year!
    (Don't take our word for it. Hear from Dr. Michael Thomasino, DMD, founder and CEO of Megalodon Dental Practice Group.)
12. Patient Admission Process (Healthcare)
13. Patient Discharge Process (Healthcare)
14. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Use and Disposal Process (Healthcare)
15. Recruitment & Hiring (Dental Practice)
16. Services Menu & Costs of Care (Dental Practice)
17. Using Dentrix for Dental Practice Management
18. Using Dexis for Dental X-rays
19. Welcome to the Practice (Dental Practice)
20. Workplace Health & Safety