What are the Top Dental Schools?

A Rewarding Career

A career in the field of dentistry is a challenging and rewarding profession. Anyone who chooses to take the challenge is joining the admirable fight to prevent disease and promote wellness.

General Dentistry

Dentists do everything from manage pain to improving appearance. They repair, maintain, and restore the gingival (gums), dentition (teeth), and oral tissues lost to damage through various procedures such as trauma surgery, tissue grafts, laser surgery, and dental implants. The modern dental office uses digital radiography, computers, cone-beam tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. Whether part-time or full-time, all diagnose and help patients.

The Practice of Dentistry

Did you know it’s usually a Dentist first to identify a wide range of diseases? Things like oral cancer and hypertension are often traced to oral issues. This discovery of oral disease warns of other health issues, requiring a follow-up with primary physicians and treatment.

Dental care promotes good health, educating patients and others in need to take care of their mouths, and minimizing disease prevention.

A general Dentist is creative with teeth; they brighten and match tooth colors, realign jaws, and set dentures. In every way, their repertoire requires an ability to envision an aesthetic result to ensure a patient looks their best and finds comfort.

Are You the Right Candidate?

The right candidate is a community leader, conscientious, civic-minded, and educator. Dental services include volunteering at schools, senior care homes, and other community facilities. They administer to the disenfranchised and handicapped, a trademark of the dental profession that goes beyond private practice.

The need for a full-time Dentist only grows. The general population is taking dental care more seriously. Older people are, overall, keeping their teeth longer and increased the demand for senior care. Parents want a competent pediatric dentist. There is greater demand for services like cosmetic surgery.

A part- or full-time position in dentistry is fulfilling, and make no mistake, a frustrating challenge. Serving the public and their oral needs is nothing less than selflessness. But community work and its privileges are tempered by malpractice insurance and COVID-19. Dentists cannot forget their passion for improving the lives of those in their community!

Dentist Jobs

General practice makes up the vast majority of the industry. A dental center like this provides comprehensive care. A Dentist can limit their practice to a specialty to meet the standards of organizations such as the American Dental Association, the Requirements for Recognition of Dental Specialties, and National Certifying Boards for Dental Specialists.

Here are the nine specific specialties set as an established practice:

• Dental Public Health
• Endodontics
• Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
• Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics
• Pediatric Dentistry
• Periodontics
• Prosthodontics

As an associate Dentist, General Dentist, or Cosmetic Dentist, you may work with a dental assistant and a dental hygienist.

Why Be a Dentist?

• U.S. News & World Report listed dentistry as a top job for six straight years.
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor believes at least another 10,000 new jobs in dentistry will be available by 2028.
• Career Options. The profession entails a range of research, academic, and clinical possibilities. Dentist opportunities can come at any point of their career.
• Serve your community. Enhancing the lives and restoring oral health to patients will enrich not just their lives, but yours. Preventative care, managing pain, correcting dentofacial esthetics, engaging dental restorative procedures, your impact will bring satisfaction and joy.
• Flexible lifestyle. Dentists have greater choice in hours and days they will work.
• Earn a good salary. Incomes can vary but the average net income for the dental industry is promising.
• Independence. Your next steps are up to you. You can begin a private practice upon leaving dental school, work for group practice, or start out as an associate Dentist.

The Dental Program

Perseverance. Humility. Transparency. Communication skills. A good sense of humor.

Wherever you begin your dental program, the above qualities are required for any dental candidate. Education will be the beginning of your career where you will meet the influencers — hygienists and general Dentists alike — who can change your life.

From shadowing a Dentist to the DAT (Dental Admissions Test), surround yourself with the best tools available to you. Not everyone can go to Harvard. But everyone has the opportunity to be a high-quality Dentist, to be a fee-for-service associate general Dentist.

Harvard School of Dental Medicine

Harvard School of Dental Medicine ranks high on any list. Harvard runs an exclusive program, taking in less than 40 students each year. Its offerings are exceptional, almost ensuring earnings potential and distinguished career prospects. Harvard fosters critical thinking, independent learning, and evolving skills essential to general dentistry.

University at Buffalo, SUNY School of Dental Medicine

Highlighted recently as the #10 ranked dental school in the U.S. and #11 globally, the University at Buffalo, SUNY School of Dental Medicine, has managed to hold on to a policy of offering tuition 20% lower than the national average. The UB DDS program in normal organ systems and anatomy is comprehensive. Students also begin patient care sooner than at other schools.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Postgraduate Program in Orthodontics

Integrating clinical orthodontics and general science in a uniquely designed curriculum has been fundamental in developing specialists in orthodontic theory. Students rotate at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Craniofacial Clinic. The program pushes students to pursue diverse disciplines and engage in research in Penn Dental Medicine’s clinical sciences.

Boston University

A leader in clinical care, education, research, community service, and administration, Boston University stands out in implementing maxillofacial and oral surgery. It has a highly respected facility. The school has programs for the four-year DMD and a seven-year program that integrates BAs and BUs.

College of Dentistry New York University

NYU’s College of Dentistry annually turns out 350 DDS students immersed in behavioral, clinical, and biomedical courses. There’s an extensive real-world experience where students go hands-on with faculty and group practice directors. Statistically, NYU is responsible for almost 10% of this country’s oral health practitioners.

University of Alabama at Birmingham

The University of Birmingham Dental School is part of the UAB Health System. At UAB, students are exposed to areas of specialization, including pediatric dentistry, restorative sciences, general practice, and oral and maxillofacial surgery. The university graduates, on average, 70 dental candidates a year.

For a list of dental schools by state, visit the American Student Dental Association.

A Future in Oral Health Care

The Dentist is a respected member of the community. Taking a Dentist job means shaping the future of dental care. It doesn’t matter if you go part-time, or full-time, endodontist or dental associate. Ultimately, through research and education, any Dentist opportunity will be instrumental in transforming dentistry through your standing in the industry.

Your engagement influences the dental school curriculum and your patient base. X-ray technologies and clinical techniques impact the development of cutting-edge science.

Choosing to join that profession is an admirable choice for anyone looking to shape the world.