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Introduction
The Careers in Dentistry area on ADA.org features a wealth of information about careers in the dental profession. As a parent, educator, advisor, or student ambassador, please take time to review the information for students interested in careers as a dentist, dental hygienist, dental laboratory technician and dental assistant. Each area features job descriptions, career advantages, opportunities, education and training requirements and more. You’ll also find helpful information in our Financial Planning area.
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Career Mentoring Program
Mentoring has been identified as the most important factor influencing a student’s decision to pursue a career in the dental profession. The ADA career mentoring program connects students with dentists in their local area and is geared for students (K-16). Through this program students get their questions answered and may have an opportunity to ‘job shadow’ at a neighborhood dentist’s office. Dentists often recommend that students experience dentistry through shadowing a variety of dentists (a general dentist, a dental specialist such as a public health dentist or a dentist who concentrates on research), which gives students an idea of the various career options available. Spending a day with a dentist, dental hygienist or dental assistant often helps students decide if a career in dentistry is the right path to take. The Career Options tab above provides more information about the different ways to practice dentistry. Visit the ADA mentoring section for a list of available programs, possible questions to ask and what can be gained by participating in a mentoring program.
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Student Ambassador Program
This unique program is a student - driven recruitment process and is part of the ADA Career Guidance and Diversity Activities Committee. It is made up of representatives from the Hispanic Dental Association (HDA), the National Dental Association (NDA), the Society of American Indian Dentists (SAID), the American Student Dental Association (ASDA), the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) and student groups as well as the National Association of Advisors to the Health Professions (NAAHP) and Colgate Palmolive.
The program’s focus is to recruit students from underrepresented groups to the dental profession. Ambassadors accomplish this by taking the lead in organizing and conducting student-to-student recruitment activities with predental and high school students. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has provided funding to the program since its inception in 2006.
Achievements of the ambassador program include dental students successfully developing a collaborative model of student outreach for all student groups, partnering with NAAHP and reviewing and contributing to best practices in student- to-student recruitment. Decidedly, the program works because dental students are committed to providing personal undergraduate experiences that give insight into how an “ambassador” might effectively reach out to other underrepresented groups.
For additional information visit the NAAHP web site, Diversity in the Health Professions, located at http://www.naahp.org/diversity.htm.
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Career Exploratory Programs such as Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day and Learning for Life (Exploring) offer students of varing ages the opportunity to learn about a variety of careers. These and other programs target elementary through college age students and they can provide access to more information about careers in dentistry (some even offer the chance to acquire hands-on experience). For example, activities such as making mouth guards, finding out about forensic dentistry and visiting a dental lab are some of the activities available in the Learning for Life’s Dentistry Explorer Post Programs.
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Something to Smile About—Careers in the Dental Profession
The Something to Smile About program targets the career areas of dentistry, dental assisting, dental hygiene, and dental laboratory technology with audio-visual and print resource materials. Many of the resources can be used alone, in conjunction with other items or as a complete package.
These materials were designed to meet various career development opportunities and for use by middle school/high school counselors and others. View the resource materials available now.
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