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Dentistry is widely considered an excellent career choice. It's an essential part of public health with many options to specialise into different areas, and generally provides very good job security. Dentists are needed all around the world in both private and public sector businesses, and in addition to the satisfaction of helping people improve their oral health, dental professionals earn a very high salary. They must thrive in a competitive and highly technical professional environment, and continue learning throughout their career as the industry evolves.

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What does a dentist do?

The work of a dentist is to supervise and manage all aspects of oral hygiene. Their responsibilities include giving regular checkups, diagnosing dental issues, prescribing treatments and performing procedures. Some of their usual duties include:

• Conducting oral health checks
• Advising patients about diet and oral hygiene
• Cleaning gums and teeth
• Taking X-rays of teeth and jaws
• Repairing cavities and removing teeth
• Administering anaesthetic
• Performing cosmetic procedures such as teeth whitening
• Prescribing medicine to treat oral diseases
• Applying and removing dental braces

What’s it like to work as a dentist?

There are many different roles within dentistry, making it a versatile career options with plenty of opportunities for progression and development. You could work for the NHS or a private practice and you may choose to specialise. You could also end up working in your local clinic, a university research centre, a cosmetic dental centre, or providing treatment abroad for an international aid organisation wherever it's needed most.

Regardless of your professional journey, your daily tasks are likely to include many patient interactions in which you’ll conduct routine oral check ups, take X-rays, write prescriptions and perform minor procedures.

For this, you'll often be working with an assistant and with a hygienist, who will share in much of the administrative and actual dental work, enabling you to function as an effective professional team.

A large part of the job is also to be a calm, informed and reassuring presence with respect to your patients, who may be visiting for a routine check up, or who may be in a significant amount of discomfort or distress.

A good way to assess whether dentistry is something you want to pursue is to spend time with a working dentist who can enhance your understanding by talking with you about their experience or even allowing you to shadow them in their office.

What skills do you need to be a dentist?

To qualify as a dentist and succeed as a professional requires a lot of academic study and skills training. Some of the skills you will need to practise as a dentist in the UK include:

• Superb verbal communication
• Advanced academic knowledge of medicine and dentistry
• Fine motor skills, coordination and dexterity
• Attention to detail and thoroughness
• Critical reasoning skills
• Organisation and administration skills
• Time management and consistency
• English language proficiency

How much does a dentist earn?

The journey to becoming a dentist is long and requires significant investment, so you can expect a good salary in return.

Salaries vary quite a bit, depending on your level of experience, specialisms, and where you work. For example, newly qualified dentists who want to work in the NHS must complete a dental foundation training year which pays an annual salary of £36,288. The NHS typically pays its dentists between £45,000 and £100,000 per year.

Most dentists are self-employed and undertake a mix of NHS and private work. Fully private dentists can expect to earn up to £140,000 per year.

How to become a dentist

The route to qualification as a dentist in the UK is long and very well defined. You'll have to do three different stages of education, and an undergraduate degree in dentistry is essential.

Dentistry is highly competitive, and to be accepted onto a course you will usually need to have achieved a certain standard of GCSE results, and a minimum of AAA at A-level including biology and/or chemistry, plus another scientific subject. Additionally, many courses ask students to sit an entry exam, so if you’re committed to becoming a dentist then you’ll need a strong academic foundation.

Undergraduate dental education

The first stage of dentistry requires studying for five years at uni, where you'll learn a variety of practical skills and build a broad academic understanding of medicine, anatomy, and dentistry techniques. You'll undergo a lot of practical skills training, with various assignments and examinations to assess progress. The course is competitive and many do not complete the first stage. During this part of your training, you'll visit a range of hospital and community clinics where you'll provide treatment to real patients under close supervision.

Postgraduate training

After completing the undergraduate course, newly qualified graduates undergo a year-long Dental Foundation Training (DFT) which provides an introduction to general practice as well as a safe environment to work in.

Continued professional development (CPD)

After completion of your dental education, you will register as a qualified dentist with the General Dental Council (GDC). From this point on, your professional license requires a certain amount of CPD each year, to ensure that you are aware of the latest developments within science and dentistry.

If you want to develop a particular professional specialism, you can complete a residency which typically takes an additional two to six years. In the UK there are thirteen dental specialities – dental and maxillofacial radiology, dental public health, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial pathology, oral medicine, oral microbiology, oral surgery, orthodontics, paediatric dentistry, periodontology, prosthodontics, restorative dentistry, and special care dentistry. Depending on which speciality you choose, the total timespan of your dental education and training can take up to 14 years.

Top universities for dentistry

Want to know the best universities for dentistry? Check out the top five unis on Complete University Guide's Dentistry Subject Guide...

• University of Dundee
• University of Glasgow
• University of Bristol
• Cardiff University
• Newcastle University

Next: Check out our Medicine and Dentistry Career Guides