Interested in Pediatric Dentistry? A Few Facts to Know About This Exciting Field
Enjoy Working to Maintain and Improve Children’s Smiles? Keep Reading!
Pediatric dentists, or pedodontists, know better than anyone that positive oral health habits start at a young age – often as soon as their patients’ first teeth come through. In fact, pediatric dentists begin working with children as early as age two and up to their early adulthood at age 18.
This meaningful career option offers high pay, the reward of working with children, and the influence to change their habits for years to come. Pedodontists also enjoy the child’s milestones throughout their early lives, from examining their first set of baby teeth to referring them or consulting them on options for braces. In short, it’s an exciting, fulfilling career path that keeps growing and can provide countless opportunities for the right person. Could that be you?
Why Pediatric Dentistry?
If you’ve always enjoyed working with children and are wondering how you could merge that with your passion for dentistry, you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading to see which responsibilities to expect on an average day and what salary you could earn with this occupation.
Key Responsibilities
Though your daily responsibilities will vary depending on your patient, you can expect to regularly perform the following tasks:
- Advance oral wellbeing.
- Diagnose oral diseases.
- Create treatment plans to keep up or restore the oral strength of your patients.
- Monitor development and improvement of the teeth and jaws.
- Take x-rays
- Perform surgeries on the teeth, bone, and soft tissues of the oral cavity.
- Fix or monitor decaying teeth.
- Fix dental wounds, including broken or dislodged teeth.
Pay Ranges to Expect from Various Roles
If you’re already considering dentistry, we’re sure you’re aware that it pays handsomely. You might not know that pediatric dentistry roles typically bring in even higher salaries. A recent ZipRecruiter report shows that the average dentist receives an average salary of about $160,000 per year, while a pediatric dentist makes up to $250,000. If you ever decide to own a pediatric dental practice, your annual pay shoots up to around $300,000.
Where you live and work also affects your salary as a pedodontist, but not in the way you might expect. Rethink the massive cities like New York and Los Angeles: Highly populated areas usually face steeper competition, so many specialists are heading to more rural areas to dominate the local market while earning more.
Basic Must-Haves for This Field
Whether you’re reading this about pediatric dentistry jobs or out of sheer curiosity about the field, you may wonder why a specialized oral health provider is important for children. After all, most families have already established a family dentist that they trust.
Read below to see why pedodontics clinics and specialists make a difference to the patient population they serve.
Emotional Intelligence and Sensitivity to Children’s Needs
Dentistry uniquely focused on children starts with the knowledge that younger people have specialized needs, and that’s a challenge. Having said that, it’s a fun challenge for those ideally suited for this career path.
For starters, younger patients have different emotional and mental requirements. For example, they might display higher anxiety because they’re facing many dental “firsts” like a cavity filling, tooth pulling, loose teeth, and other situations where they don’t know what to expect.
Many children also display higher energy levels and tend to squirm much more than the average adult patient. As a result, they might resist opening their mouth wide enough without a bite block or struggle to follow commands that aren’t familiar to them yet. If you have the patience and emotional intelligence to consider and accommodate children’s unique cognitive needs, you’re well on your way to a promising career in pediatric dentistry.
Educational Requirements and Pathway
Specialized education remains important for the field as children have varying physical needs as well as the emotional ones we discussed above. For starters, they have significantly smaller jaw sizes and rapidly shifting dental anatomy where change is the only constant.
As such, pediatric dental training requires years of education and clinical experience. Candidates must receive a bachelor’s degree, complete dental school, and pass a series of dental certification exams to become a licensed Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) or Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD).
From there, you’ll need to complete two years of residency programs with a concentration on pediatric dentistry and complete your Board Certification.
Contact Us Today!
Peak Performers understands the pediatric dentistry industry, its employment trends, and how the market is evolving. Even with the ever-changing employment landscape, we help dental professionals find their perfect match when filling their next open role.
By partnering with us, you will work with a team of dedicated staffing professionals passionate about helping others, bringing in new talent, and growing your career. So, contact Peak Performers today to find your next role in the dental industry.
