How to become a Dentists, General 2024

Dentists, General Examine, diagnose, and treat diseases, injuries, and malformations of teeth and gums. May treat diseases of nerve, pulp, and other dental tissues affecting oral hygiene and retention of teeth. May fit dental appliances or provide preventive care.

Dentists, General is Also Know as

In different settings, Dentists, General is titled as

Dental Surgery Doctor (DDS)
Dentist
Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD)
Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS)
Family Dentist
General Dentist
Pediatric Dentist

Education and Training of Dentists, General

Dentists, General is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Dentists, General

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Dentists, General

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Dentists, General

Training Required for Dentists, General

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Dentists, General in different industries are

What Do Dentists, General do?

Administer anesthetics to limit the amount of pain experienced by patients during procedures.
Examine teeth, gums, and related tissues, using dental instruments, x-rays, or other diagnostic equipment, to evaluate dental health, diagnose diseases or abnormalities, and plan appropriate treatments.
Formulate plan of treatment for patient's teeth and mouth tissue.
Advise or instruct patients regarding preventive dental care, the causes and treatment of dental problems, or oral health care services.
Design, make, or fit prosthodontic appliances, such as space maintainers, bridges, or dentures, or write fabrication instructions or prescriptions for denturists or dental technicians.
Diagnose and treat diseases, injuries, or malformations of teeth, gums, or related oral structures and provide preventive or corrective services.
Fill pulp chamber and canal with endodontic materials.
Write prescriptions for antibiotics or other medications.
Analyze or evaluate dental needs to determine changes or trends in patterns of dental disease.
Treat exposure of pulp by pulp capping, removal of pulp from pulp chamber, or root canal, using dental instruments.
Eliminate irritating margins of fillings and correct occlusions, using dental instruments.
Perform oral or periodontal surgery on the jaw or mouth.
Remove diseased tissue, using surgical instruments.
Apply fluoride or sealants to teeth.
Bleach, clean, or polish teeth to restore natural color.
Plan, organize, or maintain dental health programs.
Produce or evaluate dental health educational materials.
Use masks, gloves, and safety glasses to protect patients and self from infectious diseases.
Use dental air turbines, hand instruments, dental appliances, or surgical implements.
Manage business aspects such as employing or supervising staff or handling paperwork or insurance claims.

Qualities of Good Dentists, General

Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.

Tools Used by Dentists, General

Air compressors
Air/water syringe tips
Air/water syringes
Amalgam bands
Amalgam carriers
Amalgam condensers
Amalgam retainers
Amalgam wells
Angle dental handpieces
Angled pliers
Anterior forceps
Anterior scalers
Apex locators
Articulating paper forceps
Autoclaves
Automated external defibrillators AED
Automatic film processing systems
Awls
Ball bearing contra angle assemblies
Band setters
Bayonet forceps
Biscuspid forceps
Bite blocks
Blood pressure monitors
Bone clamps
Bone files
Bridge removers
Broaches
Bulb irrigators
Capnographs
Cement placing instruments
Cement spatulas
Chemical vapor sterilizers
Chin-length plastic face shields
Composite placing instruments
Contra angle sheaths
Copalite bands
Copalite retainers
Cotton pliers
Crane picks
Cricothyrotomy devices
Cross-bar elevators
Crown removers
Crown removing pliers
Crown scissors
Crown splitting forceps
Curved hemostats
Curved mosquito forceps
Daylight loader film processing systems
Dental air abrasion systems
Dental aspiration syringes
Dental burnishers
Dental carbon dioxide CO2 lasers
Dental carvers
Dental chairs
Dental chisels
Dental condensers
Dental cord packing instruments
Dental drills
Dental electrosurgery devices
Dental excavating burs
Dental excavators
Dental fiberoptic retractors
Dental handpieces
Dental impression trays
Dental laboratory lathes
Dental laboratory plaster traps
Dental lasers
Dental mallets
Dental margin trimmers
Dental matrix bands
Dental mouth prop or bite block or gag
Dental operating lights
Dental scissors
Dental syringes
Dental wax spatuals
Dental wire cutters
Dental x ray protective aprons
Desktop computers
Digital medical thermometers
Digital radiographic equipment
Disimpaction forceps
Double-end explorers
Double-end periodontal probes
Dycal instruments
Electrically powered dental amalgamators
Enamel hatchets
Endo excavators
Endodontic micro-torches
Endodontic obturating cones
Endodontic pluggers
Explorers
Extraoral x ray equipment
Eyewash stations
Fiberoptic aspirators
Fiberoptic dental mirrors
Fiberoptic diagnostic probes
Fiberoptic periosteal elevators
Foot controls
Furcation probes
Gates-Glidden drills
Gauze packers
Gutta percha dispensers
Headsets
High heat sterilizers
High-speed dental handpieces
High-speed evacuators
Instrument sharpeners
Interproximal carvers
Intraoral camera systems
Intraoral microscope systems
Intraoral printers
Intraoral x ray equipment
Laryngeal mask airways LMA
Ligature instruments
Manual film processing systems
Masks
Matrix retainers
Metal spatulas
Metric calipers
Model trimmers
Molar forceps
Mouth mirrors
Needle holders
Neodymium-doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet Nd:YAG dental lasers
Nitrous oxide administration equipment
Notebook computers
Occlusal force analysis systems
Oral evacuation equipment
Panoramic x ray equipment
Pedodontic forceps
Periodontal curettes
Periodontal elevators
Periodontal knives
Periodontal pocket markers
Periodontal probing devices
Periosteal elevators
Periotomes
Personal computers
Photo-activated disinfection systems
Plaster knives
Plaster vibrators
Plastic filling instruments
Pluggers
Pointing devices
Porcelain crown pliers
Posterior scalers
Pretracheal stethoscopes
Prophy contra angle head assemblies
Prophylaxis angles
Prophylaxis brushes
Prophylaxis cups
Protective gowns
Pulp testers
Pulse oximeters
Rongeur forceps
Root canal barbed broaches
Root canal enlargers
Root canal files
Root canal pluggers
Root canal rasps
Root canal reamers
Root canal spreaders
Root elevators
Root tip picks
Rubber dam clamp forceps
Rubber dam clamps
Rubber dam frames
Rubber dam punches
Safety glasses
Saliva ejectors
Scalpels
Scanners
Sharpening stones
Sickles
Single-end explorers
Single-ended periodontal probes
Slow-speed dental handpieces
Spoon excavators
Spoons
Straight attachments
Straight dental handpieces
Straight elevators
Straight hemostats
Straight mosquito forceps
Straight scissors
Surgical burs
Surgical elevators
Surgical gloves
Surgical handles
Surgical masks
Surgical scissors
Suture scissors
Thyroid collars
Thyroid shields
Tissue forceps
Tissue retractors
Tongue forceps
Tongue retractors
Tooth color shade guides
Tooth-whitening argon lasers
Towel clamps
Turvey maxillary expander
Ultrasonic cleaners
Ultrasonic scaler tips
Visible light curing units
Wire and arch bar scissors
Wiring pliers

Technology Skills required for Dentists, General

ABELSoft ABELDent
Accounting software
ACE Dental
AlphaDent
AltaPoint Data Systems AltaPoint Dental
Data Team DDS
Dental charting software
Dental clinical records software
Dental digital radiology software
Dental imaging software
Dental intra-oral imaging software
DentiMax
DSN Software Dental-Exec
DSN Software Oral Surgery-Exec
DSN Software Perio-Exec
eClinicalWorks EHR software
EZ 2000
Genesis Dental
Henry Schein DentalVision Professional
Henry Schein Dentrix
Henry Schein Easy Dental
Henry Schein EndoVision
Henry Schein PerioVision
Kodak Dental Systems Kodak PRACTICEWORKS Practice management software PMS
Kodak Dental Systems Kodak SOFTDENT Practice management software PMS
MDC Services DentalMate
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
MOGO Dental Software MOGO
OCS Office-Partner
Open Dental
Patterson Dental Supply Patterson EagleSoft
PEB XLDent
Practice management software PMS
Spreadsheet software
Teleo Practice Services The Complete Practitioner
ToothPics software
Voice-activated perio charting software
Web browser software
Windent OMS
Windent SQL
Word processing software

US Universities

How to become Dentists, General in 2024