There are a few things to look out for when pursuing a career in dentistry. A good place to start is by thinking about what your ideal role would be; a general dentist, a specialist dentist in a specific area, a hygienist, a nurse, a receptionist and so on. Also, consider whether you would only be looking for a temporary role or whether you would be looking for something permanent. Then consider whether you would want full-time hours or part time hours and take into consideration other commitments such as childcare and so forth that may add restrictions to the number of hours and days you would be able to work.
Pros and Cons of Becoming a Dentist
Pros
- It’s a highly respected profession
- You have the ability to help people in every aspect of your job from making patients feel welcome and reassured through to helping them be free from pain to having the perfect smile to boost their self-confidence.
- It’s a well-paid profession
- It’s a stable job as people will always have teeth and with the rise in the number of people in search of ways to look better and have the perfect celebrity smile it’s a secure job.
- You can have a balanced lifestyle as the hours aren’t unsociable due to dental practices having set opening times.
Cons
- It takes a long time and at a lot of education before you can become a fully qualified dentist, normally 7 – 8 years after you finish high school. It normally takes around 5 years on a full-time course to become a Bachelor of Dental Science. If you then choose that you want to become a specialist in a specific area, then that takes another 2 – 6 years.
- It’s a demanding job and can be exhausting as on top of doing your job you also have all the patient care from working with phobic patients to having to work some evenings and weekends as well as dealing with dental emergencies.
- You will end up leaving dental school in debt as the courses aren’t cheap.
- The risk of illness through catching something from a patient as you will see a lot of people every day and be working in close proximity.
The easiest way to find your perfect dentistry career is to register yourself with a dental recruitment agency who will be able to match jobs to you to save you time looking at jobs you may not be interested in or suitable for. It may be worth a look at reliable dental recruitment agency with FP recruitment or one of the other dental recruitment agencies to find your perfect role.
Another advantage of this is that you won’t have to worry about all the things you would have to do if you decided to go it alone and be self-employed and front the cost of a practice, staff, insurance and so forth all by yourself. When you’re just starting out, this is a great solution as you have the support of other experienced members of staff.