---
title: "Dentist"
description: "Examine, diagnose, and treat diseases, injuries, and malformations of teeth and gums. May treat diseases of nerve, pulp, and other dental tissues…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/dentist"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Dentist

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1021.00

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.

Also advertised as: Dental Surgery Doctor (DDS); Dentist; Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD); Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS); Family Dentist; General Dentist; Pediatric Dentist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $170,950 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $82.19/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $86,250 to $319,630, with the middle half between $125,710 and $224,040
- **Total US employment:** 124,390
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.1% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 3,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 49/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 124,390 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $86,250 |
| 25th | $125,710 |
| 50th (median) | $170,950 |
| 75th | $224,040 |
| 90th | $319,630 |
| Mean (average) | $191,350 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $230,990 | $225,667 | 310 |
| ND | $220,660 | $248,047 | 260 |
| MN | $219,200 | $222,265 | 2,370 |
| TN | $215,290 | $234,342 | 2,200 |
| OR | $211,690 | $204,806 | 1,660 |
| ME | $209,200 | $215,559 | 310 |
| NC | $207,000 | $219,452 | 4,140 |
| GA | $206,760 | $214,720 | 2,620 |
| MO | $204,960 | $225,685 | 2,440 |
| VT | $204,960 | $209,233 | 240 |
| VA | $197,110 | $194,958 | 4,140 |
| AZ | $194,180 | $192,874 | 3,470 |
| WI | $193,690 | $205,845 | 2,560 |
| NY | $183,060 | $169,624 | 7,340 |
| MA | $181,600 | $171,714 | 2,780 |

33 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 48 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/dentist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/dentist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 129,800 in the 2024–2034 base year to 135,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,400 jobs, or +4.1%. Faster than average: 4.1% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 3,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 81.4% |
| Some College Courses | 7.2% |
| Master's Degree | 5.8% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 5.6% |

## What the work involves

- Use masks, gloves, and safety glasses to protect patients and self from infectious diseases.
- 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.
- Administer anesthetics to limit the amount of pain experienced by patients during procedures.
- Advise or instruct patients regarding preventive dental care, the causes and treatment of dental problems, or oral health care services.
- Analyze or evaluate dental needs to determine changes or trends in patterns of dental disease.
- Formulate plan of treatment for patient's teeth and mouth tissue.
- Design, make, or fit prosthodontic appliances, such as space maintainers, bridges, or dentures, or write fabrication instructions or prescriptions for denturists or dental technicians.
- Write prescriptions for antibiotics or other medications.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Realistic (R), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.48 |
| R — Realistic | 5.23 |
| S — Social | 4.41 |
| C — Conventional | 3.71 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.00 |
| A — Artistic | 1.17 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 78.3 |
| ISTP | 70.9 |
| ISFJ | 68.7 |
| INTJ | 64.6 |
| ESTJ | 62.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeon) — median $352,220
- [Prosthodontist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/prosthodontist) — median $311,180
- [Orthodontist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthodontist) — median $289,140
- [Dental Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dental-assistant) — median $48,070
- [Pediatric Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatric-surgeon) — median $559,030
- [Orthopedic Surgeon, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthopedic-surgeon) — median $358,550
- [Dental Hygienist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dental-hygienist) — median $98,100
- [Dermatologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dermatologist) — median $328,730
- [Ophthalmologist, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmologist) — median $300,080
- [Urologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urologist) — median $265,930

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/dentist