There are a variety of reasons why people decide to choose a profession in dentistry. For starters, it can provide you with an opportunity to have a stable career and make a good living, while offering a much-needed service to the general public. Beyond performing dental procedures, dentists promote good oral hygiene by educating their patients on habits and practices that prevent disease and optimize health.
Becoming a dentist offers challenges and rewards. One of the first challenges is completing the necessary education. For starters, applying to a dental school program requires you to earn a bachelor’s degree from an accredited school. This means you’ll need to have acceptable ACT or SAT scores to be competitive. Depending on your high school, it might be possible to complete related courses, such as chemistry, biology, calculus, and physics.
Beyond general education courses, to qualify for a dental school program, you’ll have to select an undergraduate major in the sciences. Some of the classes that you’ll take to earn a Bachelor of Science for pre-dentistry include college-level chemistry, biology, calculus, and physics, among others. In fact, you’ll take science-related courses for two years in an undergraduate program. There are many colleges that offer courses that are tailored to meet the requirements of dental schools.
Dental schools require you to pass the Dental Admission Test (DAT) as part of the application and acceptance process. Taking the DAT will ensure you’re fully prepared for the rigorous curriculum required in dental school. You’ll want to make sure your dental school is fully accredited by the American Dental Association’s (ADA’s) Commission on Dental Accreditation. Dental school will usually take four years and it allows you to earn a Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) or a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS). These two credentials have the same curriculum requirements.
During dental school, you’ll spend the first two years of the program focused on laboratory projects and classroom studies that cover subjects like anatomy, oral medicine, and operative dentistry. In the final two years of your dental school program, you’ll gain valuable clinical experience and have an opportunity to work under the supervision of dentists who are already in practice.
During your studies, you’ll have to make a decision about whether you’ll have a specialization. For instance, you might choose to specialize in pediatric dentistry and work primarily with children. Another specialty that you can choose is orthodontics, which uses braces and other methods to straighten teeth. There’s also the prosthodontics specialty that focuses on improving the appearance and health of patients by replacing teeth that are missing.
Endodontics are dentists that provide treatment when a patient has more serious dental hygiene issues, such as injuries to the pulp of their teeth or disease caused by decay. Other options for specialization include oral and maxillofacial pathology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral and maxillofacial radiology, and orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics.
After completing dental school, you’ll be required to pass the National Board Dental Examination. They require you to pass both the clinical and written parts of the exam, which is administered by the state in which you live. You’ll have to pass the exam before you can receive a license to practice any form of dentistry.
There are more than 190,000 active dentists in the United States, and most of them are in general practice. General practice is usually preferred because it provides you with an opportunity to offer a more comprehensive list of services to a larger number of patients. However, if you choose a specialty, there are requirements that will need to be met based on the criteria of national certifying boards.