Is Cosmetic Dentistry The Right Career Path For You?

Dentistry Career Advice from Janet Krahenbuhl

It’s a very difficult thing, determining one’s own career. After days, years, and even decades of consideration, selecting a profession can be a daunting task, to say the least. Even after determining a field, if subsets of the field exist, narrowing down an exact profession can turn into a science of its own genre.

There are many fields that fall under the umbrella of “dentistry”, but cosmetic dentistry is a field that’s on the rise. When determining whether or not cosmetic dentistry is for you, the same with choosing any field, you have to weigh the potential pros and cons of pursuing a career in the field.

Thanks to the rise of social media and the emphasis placed on Hollywood Image, many patients emphasize their desire to have the perfect smile. Working as a cosmetic dentist has a psychological aspect to it, in that you are assisting your patients in raising their self-esteem and providing them with a confidence boost as well as personal pride. When you hand a patient a mirror for them to look at their new and improved smile, the sense of personal achievement can be extreme, especially because cosmetic processes involve more than those just involved in general dentistry. Before-and-after photos garnered from working with these patients also assist in creating a portfolio of professional work, which can lead to more clients.

Additionally, many dental companies send free product trials to cosmetic dentists for them to try before using them on patients. Since no product will be beneficial to all patients, sampling increases the range of services that can be provided as a cosmetic dentist, thus allowing cosmetic dentists the ability to more successfully serve their patients. This is important because, for dentists, happy patients means happy reviews, which makes for more clients, which makes for happy dentists.

On the other hand, the cost of becoming a cosmetic dentist can be great. The average cost for schooling to become a cosmetic dentist is nearly half a million dollars, after all classes and certifications have been completed and earned. Schooling for cosmetic dentistry is also a time-intensive process. Cosmetic dentists must earn a four-year degree, spend four years in dental school, and attend additional years of school to specialize in cosmetic services. And after you’ve finished all the necessary schooling, it’s likely that as a cosmetic dentist, a great deal of your time will be spent in the office.

Because it is essential for cosmetic candidates to have strong teeth to build upon, a great amount of time must be devoted to fixing any pain, filling cavities, and performing root canals before starting on the cosmetic process. Some patients visit a cosmetic dentist thinking that they can walk into the office with a number of chronic tooth problems and walk out with a perfect Hollywood smile; they do not understand the chain of events where cosmetics is concerned. There are also some patients who, after bleaching, veneers, implants, etc., are still not satisfied with their smile and more time will need to be spent to determine additional treatment plans. Dealing with unhappy patients can create a stressful environment in the office and possibly negative word-of-mouth.

Overall, cosmetic dentistry can be a very rewarding field to be in. Knowing that you are helping patients with any confidence or self-esteem issues is a wonderful feeling, and that sense of achievement is imperative to having a successful and healthy career. However, the road is long and difficult to achieving that goal. Weighing the balance carefully between the advantages and disadvantages of working in the field of cosmetic dentistry is essential when choosing a specialty.