Dentistry is a rewarding career. It is one of the most respected and highly paid professions. You can expect many things in this field, including independence, satisfaction, financial security, opportunities, and a reasonable compensation package.
If you are interested in becoming a dentist and have some questions, we got you! In this article, we will explore the expectations of this career and whether it is worth pursuing.
Is Dentistry A Good Career?
Being a dentist is a promising career because it allows you to help people, make them happy, and get a steady income for your services. As a dentist, you can expect to be your own boss. You’ll be able to determine your own schedule and decide when you want to work and how much time you need off. Additionally, dentistry has various career paths, and it’s an incredibly stable career with significant earning potential, benefits, and opportunities!
1. Oral and Dental
Dentistry is considered an art and a science. A dentist will likely transform a patient’s teeth into a surreal masterpiece to showcase their artistic side.
The medical field concentrates on the oral, teeth, gums, and tissues, which involves researching, evaluating, treating, and managing illnesses, diseases, and disorders.
Additionally, dentistry encompasses health and well-being development. As dentists, they are responsible for providing healthy diets and all aspects of good oral hygiene that substantially enhance the quality of life.
As you can see, dentists are specialists in oral health. Therefore, they have the skills and experiences to comprehend how your dental and oral health affects your general well-being.
2. Incredibly Stable Career
One of the most fulfilling professions to undertake is dentistry. Dentists offer the general public an essential healthcare process by teaching, treating, and providing care.
However, a dentist also encounters stress due to difficulties with patient satisfaction, discomfort, anxiousness, and the workload of their jobs.
Although dentistry has a track record for just being demanding, most dentists report feeling contented and satisfied in their careers.
Some benefits include being proactive in their employment, leading flexible lives, making a decent living with the option to open their clinics, and being their boss.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a dentist makes $163,220 annually on average.
3. Corporate and Private Practice
The corporate practice involves managing only the clinical side. The operations and administration get done by the corporate head office. Typically, corporate dentists in a central dentistry office reach their maximum income of just under $300,000.
On the other hand, dentists in private practices make an average compensation of slightly less than $220,000. Generally, the work involved in this instance will also include administration costs.
Additionally, dentistry offers opportunities to operate in various other environments, including neighborhood non-profits, educational establishments, and government offices like health departments.
Dentists have often received an income that is more than sufficient. As a result, the dental profession can provide significant financial stability!
4. Genuine Care
Some dental practitioners believe they are regularly helping patients in specific ways during their encounters with them, even if it’s just to deliver them a routine dental checkup with a concise bill of health.
They find that, when things go well, the connection between their job satisfaction and a patient’s experience can be gratifying.
Overall, dentists enjoy delivering radical smile transformations, and they consider their profession to enhance their patients’ general feeling of well-being.
5. Dental Residency
Generally, it requires eight years to train as a dentist, four years to finish an undergrad degree, and four years to reach dental school.
Within the discipline, the American Dental Association (ADA) acknowledges dental specialties such as
- periodontics,
- general dental
- orthodontics,
- oral medicine,
- dental hygenist,
- prosthodontics
- dental surgery, and
- endodontics.
If you’re a high school graduate fascinated by dentistry, you’ll need science courses like biology, physics, anatomy, and chemistry to get through medical school.
6. Ongoing Learning and Building a Knowledge Base
As mentioned above, dentists must have a university degree, clinical skills, and a license to operate.
These courses impart core clinical skills in radiology, anesthesia, periodontics, anatomy, and other dental concepts.
However, for dentists to preserve their knowledge and skills base, it’s necessary to keep current with the latest medical research and practice guidelines.
Additionally, dentists use various medical tools, such as suctions, ejectors, X-ray scanners, and surgical instruments, which are critical factors in performing a procedure.
Since many dentists are business owners, they should also exhibit their outstanding leadership capabilities by supervising dental assistants, associates, and technicians.
7. Dental Assistant Apprenticeships and Training
In contrast to the maximum five years required for a dentistry degree, you can accomplish integrated dentistry training in about 18 months.
As you can see, work experience will provide first-hand knowledge of a dentist’s professional day. This would include the administrative, organizational, and medical obligations a dental clinic would maintain within the business.
You may cut wax or even participate in creating a dental device or prosthetic in some dentistry labs.
Generally, these apprenticeship opportunities include roles for dental technicians, nurses, and lab assistants.
8. Bright Outlook
Dentists have a promising future, with a 6% projected annual growth over this decade with 5100 new jobs each year.
Simply put, one of the world’s least unstable industries is dentistry, which also has the lowest levels of unemployment.
Because of the rapid growth in cosmetic dentistry, there is always a necessity for fresh dental trainees.
Even if shifting patterns of dental problems will change the character of a dental practice, there will still be a significant need for dental hygiene services in the years ahead.
These growth figures are above average, indicating that dentistry will keep expanding over the next ten years!
9. Employment Benefits
According to surveys, corporate and private dentists provide healthcare coverage, paid holiday leave, retirement accounts, and paid opportunities to attend dental events.
Additionally, dentists get sick leave, various medical insurance, referral bonuses, educational assistance, and severance pay.
In private practice, they have a lot of freedom in choosing how many hours they want each week.
10. Versatility in Work Schedules
Dentists can acquire work-life balance if they continue to establish workplace limits and pay attention to themselves.
Dentists who work full-time usually spend 36 hours a week at their clinics, of which 33 hours are devoted to treating patients.
Additionally, most dentists have full days, while some work on the weekends.
Most dentists operate four to five days a week to better serve their patients, with some also accessible on evenings and weekends.
But this career is undoubtedly versatile and is one of the most significant benefits of being in this field.
As you can see, dentists are capable of working remotely. For example, one can begin their dental clinic online or use telehealth to provide online consults.
11. Demanding Role
A challenging patient can cause a dentist anxiety and stress, making it difficult to operate at their best.
Additionally, executing surgical treatments on the teeth, bones, and connective tissue and handling dental trauma adds to the burden of a dentist.
As well as that, working closely with patients can lead to burnout syndrome, psychological exhaustion, and a decrease in individual achievements.
To learn more, you can also see our posts on Dermatologists, Radiology, Nursing, Biomedical Science, and Food Science.
Conclusion
Dentistry is a superb choice if you seek a healthcare-related career where you get to treat people directly. It can be intellectually and emotionally rewarding and gives you the flexibility to work on your schedule.
Above all, the pay in this sector is incredibly high, and a dentist can typically build significant wealth.
Overall, dentistry offers excellent job prospects and growth. A dentist’s life can sometimes be demanding, but it can also be enriching! Find out “is dentistry hard“?