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Kraena Pre-Health
Career Library

Diagnose & Treat

Dentist (DDS or DMD)

Diagnoses and treats oral disease, with a heavy emphasis on procedural skill.

Years after high school

8–12

Degree

DDS or DMD (equivalent degrees, different naming conventions)

Entrance exam

DAT

Median pay

$176,110 national median for dentists (BLS, May 2025).

What the job is actually like

Procedure-driven and hands-on, in a field where fine motor skill matters as much as knowledge. Many dentists eventually own their practice, which makes it as much a small-business career as a clinical one.

The path

  1. 014 years undergraduate with science prerequisites
  2. 02DAT (Dental Admission Test)
  3. 034 years dental school
  4. 04Optional 2–6 year residency for specialties like orthodontics or oral surgery

Good fit if

  • You have excellent fine motor control and enjoy working with your hands
  • You are interested in eventually owning a business
  • You want a clinical career with generally predictable weekday hours

Think twice if

  • You are uncomfortable with patients who are anxious or in pain at close range
  • The debt load worries you and practice ownership does not appeal

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Physician Assistant (PA)

Diagnoses, treats, and prescribes in collaboration with a physician — much of a doctor's scope, in a fraction of the training time.

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Pharmacist (PharmD)

The medication expert — catches dangerous interactions and dosing errors that would otherwise reach patients.

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All salary figures here are median annual wages from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 — the most recent full national dataset. 'Median' means half of workers earn more and half earn less. Three things to keep in mind: (1) pay varies enormously by state, city, setting, and experience — a nurse in California and a nurse in rural Alabama earn very different salaries; (2) training lengths are typical, not guaranteed, and programs differ; (3) these numbers change every year. Always verify current figures at bls.gov/ooh before making a decision. For context, the BLS median wage for all U.S. occupations was $50,980, while healthcare practitioner and technical occupations had a median of $86,530 — one of the reasons health care is such a stable field.