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It is difficult and very competitive to get into dental school, because more and more students are applying each year. Dentistry remains as pretty much the only area in healthcare that hasn’t been fully taken over by managed care.
It takes between six and eight years to become a dentist. The exact route to becoming a dentist will depend on a few factors, such as whether you choose a specialization. Specializations like becoming an oral surgeon or periodontist will require additional training and education.
Essential Information
Required Education | Bachelor’s degree prior to admission to dental school; doctoral degree in dental medicine or dental surgery; some dental specializations require completion of a residency |
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Licensing | Required for dentists in all states |
Projected Job Growth (2018-2028) | 7%* |
Median Salary (2019) | $155,600* |
Philippines . Most Filipino Dentists must earn a total of 6 years of dental school (2 years preparatory; 4 years proper) to obtain the degree Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.).
Dental businesses generated a total income of $6.7 billion in the 2009β10 financial year. Medical specialists saw 78 patients a week, earning $271 200 of fee-for-service income. For GPs, the average fee-for-service income per practitioner was $181 600 for 124 patient contacts a week.
Dental school is the most expensive professional-degree program in the US. During the 2015-16 school year, private nonprofit dental schools charged on average more than $71,000, while public in-state dental schools charged about $38,000, according to the Urban Institute.
According to the ADA and a survey by the Health Policy Institute, βIn 2017-18, the average resident first-year cost of public dental school programs was $37,877 while the cost of private dental school programs was $67,087 .β
Med school is more intensive academically, dental school is more frustrating/stressful. It doesn’t require a ton of intellect or talent to do either.
Roughly over 12,000 people apply to dental school every year, with only around 5000 seats available in the U.S. in 2016 there were roughly 12,058 applicants and 6,100 student enrollments. This is an overall acceptance rate of ~50%. Many schools have acceptance rates as low as 5% of their applicant pool.
Most of the ” smart ” people in dental school are not geniuses, they work hard and study a lot. Do not misconstrue people with good grades as somehow being inately intelligent, although a small fraction may have some intense left brain skills. I agree with this. If you get in, then you are smart enough.
Dentists make a median annual salary of $159,770 or $76.82 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2016.
There is existing evidence that dentistry is a stressful profession mostly due to the nature and working conditions in the dental surgery and although there has been work done on occupational stress in dentistry , there has been far less investigation of the psychological distress of the job and what impact that has on
2928. Out of five types of dental specialists ( oral surgeons, endodontists, orthodontists, periodontists, and pediatric dentists), oral surgeons are consistently the highest earning dental specialists while periodontists are the lowest earning dental specialists.
Pros of becoming a Dentist Dentistry is one of the highest paid careers in the medical field. The demand for dentists continues to grow and because of the growing importance of oral hygiene, more and more people are seeking out the dental care.
Dentists are always highly respected in their communities and applauded for their work. They earn massive respect in the public sector and can carve a good reputation too.