How to Become a Dentist
Dentists may be frightening people to young children and even adults, but they perform a unique task that enables us to live healthy, happy lives: treating our teeth and making sure that they are clean and disease-free. Read on to learn more about this important profession.
Getting Started
Your dream of becoming a dentist starts as early as high school. Inquire at your nearest community college or the university of your choice about their required courses for their pre-dental programs, as these usually require focus on the sciences. You should also focus on algebra and liberal arts.
Once in college, while you do not have to major in science, you have to complete the pre-dental science requirements, which are usually organic and inorganic chemistry, general biology, physics and biochemistry.
Make sure that you have good manual dexterity, hand eye coordination and great interpersonal skills, all of which are needed in a good dentist.
Dental Schools
The American Dental Association can give you a list of four-year dental schools that are accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation. Inquire about their different dental schools and admission requirements prior to finishing your pre-dental program. Most dental schools require an undergraduate degree before admitting students in their schools. Dental schools will also most likely require you to take an admission exam, in addition to considering your grades from college and your recommendations.
The admission exam will include a Perceptual Ability test that will test your geometrical and architectural skills, both of which are needed in the practice of dentistry.
The first two years of dental school will be of classroom and laboratory courses. The last two years will consist of practice in clinics under the supervision of licensed dentists. At the end of the second and third years, students take the National Board Exams that come in two parts. These exams come in written and practical form, as well as testing the students’ diagnostic and treatment planning skills. The students will also be required to treat a patient by repairing a cavity.
After Dental School
After graduating from dental school, you can obtain your license by passing your state’s written and practical regional dental licensure exams. You should also take the ethics and jurisprudence examination, as every state has different regulations that govern dentistry. For a dentist to practice in two states, they must pass two different state jurisprudence exams.
Specialization
You can decide early on in your dental education whether or not you wish to have a specialization. You can also be a general practitioner or a dentist who can perform the basic level of oral care to your patients, while specialists have able to perform specialized operations at a higher skill level. There is a wide range of different specializations in dentistry such as dental public health, pediatric dentistry (dentistry for children), periodontics, prosthodontics, endodontics, orthodontics and dentofacial orthopaedics, among others.
The path to becoming a licensed dentist is not an easy road, but most dentists enjoy a steady income and they get to help others, too.