Dentist
🦷Treats decay and root canals, extracts teeth, fits fillings and crowns. Fine handwork in a tiny space, often with patients who are scared.
Prospects & pay
What the work is like
💼 Job market
🇺🇸 $221.1k a year on average
Dentists — US: Census ACS 2020–24 (full-time), BLS projections 2025–35
🤖 AI & automation
AI marks up X-rays and designs crowns that a milling machine makes in an hour. Treating the tooth in the patient's mouth is still a human job.
Who it suits
Interests: 🩺 Medicine and health, 🔧 Making things by hand, 🧬 Biology, 🤝 Helping and caring.
Key strengths: manual dexterity, science, attention to detail.
Where to study
- Medical degree BDS Dentistry (UK, 5 yrs), DDS / DMD (US, 4 yrs after a bachelor's)
- Residency Dental foundation training, 1 yr (UK)
Key school subjects (A-level / IB / AP): Chemistry, Biology, Maths, Physics.
🧗 UK/EU: 5-year dentistry degree straight from school (chemistry, biology, UCAT) plus a foundation year. US: bachelor's, DAT, then a 4-year DDS/DMD. Registration required (GDC in the UK, state licence in the US).
Universities
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- King's College London London
Non-UK foundations not accepted, only King's IFP; nursing: interview, English Band B; medicine and dentistry: UCAT - Queen Mary University of London London
Dentistry: UCAT + interview, high IELTS; International Foundation Year £25,500 (2026/27) - University of Manchester Manchester · €40.6k/yr
Attestat + foundation (INTO/own) or 2 years at a Russian university; medicine/dentistry A-levels/IB only; nursing IELTS 7.0, £35.3k
🇺🇸 United States
- University of Michigan School of Dentistry Ann Arbor
DDS after a bachelor's (prerequisites) + DAT; 28-month ITDP only for holders of a foreign dental degree - UCSF School of Dentistry San Francisco
DDS after a bachelor's + DAT; 3-year IDP only for foreign-trained dentists (20 admitted of 857) - Harvard School of Dental Medicine Boston
DMD after a bachelor's + DAT; internationals only with prerequisites done in English in US/Canada/UK/Australia
🇩🇪 Germany
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin Berlin · free
Medicine/dentistry: 5% of places for non-EU, via uni-assist, selection by grade only; DSH-2/3 or Goethe C2 by the deadline - LMU Munich Munich · free
No tuition; DSH-2, TestDaF 4 in all parts, telc C1 Hochschule; without it at least B2 to apply; medicine: non-EU quota - Heidelberg University Heidelberg · €3k/yr
Non-EU: €1,500 a semester (Baden-Württemberg); German C1 (DSH-2/TestDaF 4x4); medicine: non-EU quota, selection by grades *
🇳🇱 Netherlands
- Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA) Amsterdam
Dentistry (UvA/VU): numerus fixus with selection, Dutch-taught (NT2-II); certificate + 1 university year * - Radboud University Nijmegen · €13.8k–17.8k/yr
Certificate + usually 1 university year; IELTS ≈ 6.5; medicine and dentistry are numerus fixus; apply by 1 April if you need a visa - University of Groningen Groningen
VWO level by file review; IELTS 6.5 (by programme); €100 fee; numerus fixus by 15 January, others by 1 May, non-EU conditions by 1 July
🇫🇷 France
- Université Paris Cité Montrouge · €200–2.9k/yr
DAP, B2; 2026/27 moratorium — non-EU pay €178; medicine/pharmacy via PASS/LAS - Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 Lyon · €2.9k/yr
DAP, B2; non-EU pay €2,902 (individual waivers up to 30%); medicine/dentistry via PASS/LAS - University of Strasbourg Strasbourg · €200–2.9k/yr
DAP, B2; university exempts non-EU licence students from €2,902; dentistry/pharmacy via PASS/LAS
🇮🇹 Italy
- University of Milan Milan · €1.1k–4.3k/yr
12 school years; Italian B2 (English B2 for English programmes); programme tests; income abroad: fixed fee by country group - Sapienza University of Rome Rome · €700/yr
12 school years; B2 in the language of study; pre-selection for English programmes, test for medicine. Russia is band B: €700 a year - Vita-Salute San Raffaele University Milan
Psychology, philosophy, dentistry are in Italian: Italian B2 and entrance test; only the International MD is in English
🇪🇸 Spain
- Complutense University of Madrid Madrid · €6.8k–8.2k/yr
Spanish B2 required (DELE/SIELE/CCEE); homologation + UNEDasiss, PCE; non-EU pay 4th-attempt rate - University of Barcelona L'Hospitalet de Llobregat · €1.8k/yr
Homologation + UNEDasiss, PCE for score; many classes in Catalan; non-EU €30/ECTS * - University of Valencia Valencia · €1.5k–2.2k/yr
Homologation + UNEDasiss, PCE; non-EU non-residents pay double; some groups in Valencian
🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- Charles University Prague · free
Free in Czech (Czech ≈B2 + exams, ÚJOP course); English programmes €40–30,620/yr - Masaryk University Brno · €0–16k/yr
Free in Czech; English €2,700–7,500/yr (Informatics €4,500), Medicine CZK 380,000; Czech ≈B2 + entrance exams - Palacký University Olomouc Olomouc · €0–14k/yr
Free in Czech (Czech ≈B2 + exams); in English: Medicine €12,500, Dentistry €14,000/yr
Things to know
🩸 Blood and medical procedures
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