Being at a phase when you are in the middle of your internship year, and suddenly you start planning about life after graduation, you often tend to be in a gloomy phase. Usually, because of the limited knowledge of options as well as to a fact heard quite often, “There is no scope in dentistry, it has reached the saturation level.”
Saturation in a profession will come up after a point when we do not let ourselves see future opportunities and possibilities in the field.
As we start looking at the options for the future in dentistry, we come across several pathways that are uncommon to choose along with the conventional options.
Practice as an Associate Dentist in a private clinic, hospital, trust: The most common road taken by the B.D.S. graduates, doing observer-ship with a good clinic, helps you brush up the hand skills and much experience with the clinical setting.
Setting up your Dental Clinic: This option is a risk-taker if you are a fresh graduate out of college, but the best way to plan this is by having an additional clinical experience during the internship year.
Master of Dental Surgery: This path is again the most common one taken for specialization in a field of dentistry.
Academic Job: Working as a lecturer/ tutor in dental college.
Healthcare Management/M.B.A. in Healthcare: Helps in managing a clinical set up on a large scale along with entrepreneurial dental companies.
P.G. Diplomas and Fellowship programs: These programs help in enhancing the skills in different sectors of dentistry.
Civil Services: To serve in the public services and government verified jobs.
Indian Armed Forces/ Short Services Commissioned Officer in the Defence: A life of good salary and various privileges along with the pride of donning the military uniform awaits the ones keenly interested.
Masters of Public Health: A popular option for research in the healthcare industry with the experience of working at public health organizations.
Masters of Health Administration: For dental graduates interested in dealing with the administrative and health policy departments of the hospitals and healthcare companies, and non-profit government organizations.
Masters of Oral Biology/ Biomaterials: The most unconventional path taken by dental graduates in the field of non-clinical research studies.
Study abroad/ Emigration option: Emigrating to U.S.A., Canada, UK, Australia, European, or Gulf countries to practice as an international dentist.
Dental Health Consultant/ Medical Advisor: They focus on contributing towards the evaluation, critiquing, and communication of medical information related to a client’s medical record or a company’s product in case of pharmaceuticals and assisting clinical research teams.
Dental Content Writer: A great option in healthcare companies and organizations for those who have excellent literary skills with in-depth knowledge of dentistry.
Dental and Medical Coder/ Analyst: They focus on the administrative end of patient- procedure health care, medical data, and interpreting to identify problems with clients and develop solutions.
Dentistry is a vast field in the health system is always associated with different sectors of healthcare. Thus, giving us tremendous scope and opportunities to dive in. As dentists, if we fail to see these opportunities in our field, there will definitely be a point of actual saturation in the near future.
