Medicine is one of the top careers today for a number of reasons. But you’re not limited to becoming a doctor or nurse if you’re interested in helping people and earning a good living doing so. Instead, consider becoming a dentist. Let’s look at the reasons why now is the best time to become a dentist and why the profession has a bright future for years to come.

Shifting Demographics

Dentists are going to remain in high demand as the population ages, even if modern medicine reduces the incidence of other long-term health problems. This actually increases demand for dentists, since Baby Boomers hitting their later years are far more likely to retain some or all of their teeth over their parents.

This is all aside from the generally greater appreciation for regular dental care to prevent cavities and oral problems that leads patients to invest in preventative dental care instead of reacting to mouth pain. Yet the rise of fluoride free nursery water and proliferation of soda and sugary energy drinks means kids are not growing up cavity-free, so they’ll need dentists throughout their lives.

Good Pay

According to Salaries Hub, dentistry is a universally well paid profession. In the United States, the average dentist earns over a hundred thousand dollars a year. In Canada and Australia, dentists are paid an average of seventy thousand dollars a year. British dentists earn $50-60,000 in U.S. dollars. In Canada, England and Australia, you can earn more than these average figures if you’re willing to work overtime. This means that you’ll have the chance to enjoy great conditions and pay wherever you go if you happen to have a formation as a dentist.

The Help

Dentists today enjoy their role at the head of an entire team. Dental hygienists clean the teeth of patients before the dentist sees them. Office managers handle medical billing and scheduling. A dentist can focus on their patients and on their direct needs instead of dealing with all of the other tasks necessary to run a practice or handle patients.

Advances in medical technology have allowed dentists to streamline their operations as well. You may take imprints of a patient’s teeth before sending the imprints off to have custom bruxism guards, invisible braces or retainers made, but the dentist doesn’t have to do that; biomedical engineers and 3D printers do. Electronic medical records make it easy to send files to another service provider if the patient needs to see a specialist like an orthodontist or doctor for an infection. But in none of these cases does the dentist need to take written notes and then spend half an hour making copies of those notes to mail off to someone else.

Advances in medicine and improvements in general education are not going to reduce the need for dentists. In fact, we’re seeing greater demand for dentists as the population ages and retains more of their teeth. So if you were still on the fence about going to dental school, we suggest you consult with your counsellor to see if it’s truly the best option for you.