How to become Orthodontist in 2024

Orthodontist Examine, diagnose, and treat dental malocclusions and oral cavity anomalies. Design and fabricate appliances to realign teeth and jaws to produce and maintain normal function and to improve appearance.

Orthodontist is Also Know as

In different settings, Orthodontist is titled as

  • Board Certified Orthodontist
  • Orthodontic Dentist
  • Orthodontic Specialist
  • Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics Specialist
  • Orthodontics Doctor
  • Orthodontist

Education and Training of Orthodontist

Orthodontist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Orthodontist

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 Orthodontist

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 Orthodontist

Training Required for Orthodontist

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 Orthodontist in different industries are

What Do Orthodontist do?

  • Fit dental appliances in patients' mouths to alter the position and relationship of teeth and jaws or to realign teeth.
  • Study diagnostic records, such as medical or dental histories, plaster models of the teeth, photos of a patient's face and teeth, and X-rays, to develop patient treatment plans.
  • Diagnose teeth and jaw or other dental-facial abnormalities.
  • Examine patients to assess abnormalities of jaw development, tooth position, and other dental-facial structures.
  • Prepare diagnostic and treatment records.
  • Adjust dental appliances to produce and maintain normal function.
  • Provide patients with proposed treatment plans and cost estimates.
  • Instruct dental officers and technical assistants in orthodontic procedures and techniques.
  • Coordinate orthodontic services with other dental and medical services.
  • Design and fabricate appliances, such as space maintainers, retainers, and labial and lingual arch wires.
  • Advise patients to comply with treatment plans.

Qualities of Good Orthodontist

  • 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.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • 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).
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or 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.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • 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.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.

Tools Used by Orthodontist

  • Adhesive removing pliers
  • Autoclave sterilizers
  • Band contouring pliers
  • Band pushers
  • Band removers
  • Band slitting pliers
  • Bird beak pliers
  • Boone gauges
  • Bracket removing pliers
  • Cap removing pliers
  • Cheek retractors
  • Cold sterilizers
  • College tweezers
  • Dental cone beam computed tomography CT equipment
  • Dental curing light sources
  • Dental digital panoramic x ray units
  • Dental digital x ray machines
  • Dental explorers
  • Dental micrometers
  • Dental scalers
  • Desktop computers
  • Digital cameras
  • Digital stereoscopic cameras
  • Distal end cutters
  • Dontrix gauges
  • Double-ended band seaters
  • Dry heat sterilizers
  • Hemostat pliers
  • Hollow chop pliers
  • Interproximal strippers
  • Intraoral 3-D imaging devices
  • Jarabak pliers
  • Laptop computers
  • Laser scanners
  • Ligature directors
  • Ligature tying pliers
  • Light wire pliers
  • Lingual arch forming pliers
  • Lingual torquing keys
  • Loop forming pliers
  • Mathieu needle holders
  • Mathieu pliers
  • Mouth mirrors
  • Orthodontic wire cutters
  • Personal computers
  • Pin and ligature cutters
  • Positive positioners
  • Posterior band removing pliers
  • Rectangular arch forming pliers
  • Safety glasses
  • Single-end explorers
  • Surgical gloves
  • Surgical hook crimping pliers
  • Surgical masks
  • Tablet computers
  • Tie-back pliers
  • Twirl-ons
  • Ultrasonic cleaners
  • Weingart utility pliers

Technology Skills required for Orthodontist

  • Ada
  • Adstra Systems ADSTRA Management
  • Advance Ortho Systems Program Director
  • Algorithm Compu-Ceph
  • American Orthodontics Compu-Ceph
  • American Orthodontics Photo-Eze
  • Dolphin Imaging & Management Solutions Dolphin Management
  • EZappt
  • Facebook
  • FYI Technologies Dr. Ceph
  • FYI Technologies Dr. View
  • GAC International OrthoPlex
  • ICE Dental Systems
  • IMS Specialty Services IMS Digital Office
  • Innovative Software Inn-Soft Office Manager
  • Katchitek Corporation OrthoManager
  • Kodak Dental Systems Kodak ORTHOWARE
  • Microsoft Office software
  • New Horizons Software OrthoExec
  • Oasys structural design and analysis software
  • Ortho Computer Systems ViewPoint
  • OrthoChart
  • Orthoease
  • Patient management software
  • PerfectByte Ortho
  • Solutions by Design ScreenPlay
  • Web browser software