Best Non Clinical Jobs for Dentists – Overview
After earning your dental degree, becoming a dentist seems to be the obvious choice. However, increasing numbers of aspiring dentists today are seeking alternate, non-clinical career options.
The majority of these people admit that it’s a work preference and lifestyle need.
Dentists are immensely qualified professionals. They can easily transition their skills into other fields, such as administration, research, product development, public health, or education.
If you know alternate options for dentists then you can choose the best-suited profession.
Top 7 Non Clinical Jobs for Dentists

Top Non Clinical Jobs for Dentists
After you earn your dentistry degree, there are several different options to choose a career in. Here’s our list of the best non-clinical jobs for dentists in 2022:
1 – Insurance coordinator
As an insurance coordinator, you will be required to work with patients, insurance agencies and healthcare providers. Your job will be to settle payments and organize insurance claims.
You will need to handle various administrative tasks in this position.
These may include documenting insurance plan details, researching insurance plans, contacting patients about financial balances, processing and submitting claims and resolving insurance-related queries.
Insurance coordinators are highly essential in ensuring that practitioners, patients and insurance companies have proper insurance settlements.
This job profile usually requires having significant knowledge of computer and software usage and knowledge of basic insurance policies.
If you are a dentist and have experience working with insurance companies, then you can easily choose to become an insurance coordinator.
As an insurance coordinator, you can expect to earn an annual average salary of around US$ 39,030 per year.
2 – Professor
Newly-qualified dentists who are passionate about teaching and training the next generation of dentists can also choose to become a professor.
Dental professors are employed by higher education institutes, like dental schools and universities to teach students dental courses.
As a dental professor, you will be responsible for developing lesson schedules, giving lectures, organizing clinical practices, resolving student queries and guiding them through their dental education journey.
Some dental professors are also involved in independent research studies.
They conduct research, publish their report in academic journals and present their results at professional meetings.
This is one of the most exciting alternative non clinical jobs for dentists in the US in 2022.
As a dental professor in the US, you can expect to earn as much as US$ 53, 270 in average annual salary.
3 – Patient Administration Specialist
A patient administration specialist is required to perform mainly clerical tasks, such as compiling reports or processing patient paperwork.
They are required to collect paperwork from patients, enter patient information into databases and develop data reports for healthcare providers.
In some cases, patient administration specialists are also required to handle the process from patient admission to patient discharge at hospitals. To do this, you need to have strong clerical skills, such as computer literacy and organization.
As a patient administration specialist in the US, you can expect to earn around US$ 48,840 as an average annual salary.
4 – Medical Writer
Medical writers are responsible for creating scientific documents for the medical field. They usually write documents that explain regulations and laws determined by federal and state government agencies.
However, they can also publish reports on medical research or other generally interesting topics.
Some medical writers specialize in writing instruction manuals on how to use medical equipment or the proper way to take prescription medicines.
These professionals know how to create messages for different types of audiences, according to the audience’s comprehension level.
Most medical writers are experienced professional healthcare workers, such as dentists, doctors and nurses.
You can choose to work as a full-time, part-time or freelance medical writer.
The average annual salary for medical writers in the US is around US$ 70,070.
5 – Health Care Manager
Health Care Manager is responsible for organizing and supervising the management of a healthcare facility, such as a hospital or clinic.
They are well-read with the latest regulations and laws and help to ensure that the healthcare facility complies with these rules at all times.
As a healthcare manager, you will be responsible for managing budgets, identifying staffing requirements, and coordinating tasks between executives and healthcare practitioners besides developing efficiency-enhancing administrative systems.
These professionals also recommend the facility’s need for advanced technology and IT systems to support the organization’s operations more efficiently.
As a professional dentist, you can take over the role of a health care manager who offers dental care. However, you may need to undergo additional health care management training to do this job satisfactorily.
The average annual salary for health care managers in the US is around US$ 64,920.
6 – Medical Sales Executive
Medical sales executives help to sell medical equipment to healthcare practitioners.
A medical sales executive decides which products their company produces, establishes their pricing strategy and develops sales strategies to meet the company’s revenue goals.
As per their specific employment, medical sales executives may specialize in a particular type of equipment within a specific area of health care.
For instance, some medical sales executives may work for companies that make dental tools while others may work to sell dental x-ray equipment.
If you’ve already trained to be a dentist and have in-depth knowledge of the industry and its requirements, then you can choose to become a medical sales executive after completing your dentistry studies.
As a medical sales executive in the US, you can expect to earn around US$ 76,970 as an annual average salary.
7 – Research Scientist
As a research scientist, you will be working to conduct studies that contribute to the field of dentistry with new knowledge.
As per your qualification, you may work to design research studies and implement them for gathering data and drawing conclusions using scientific systems.
Junior research scientists often work under senior researchers or principal investigators.
These scientists continue to work on the senior researcher’s experiment design and conduct studies, collect data and analyze it to prepare detailed reports.
The lead researcher is responsible for interpreting the results of the research studies.
If you have completed your dentistry degree and have a passion for research, then you can easily transition into becoming a research scientist.
The average annual salary for a research scientist in the US is around US$ 82,470.
Conclusion
These are the top 7 non clinical jobs for dentists. You should consider your academic knowledge, personal skills and passion to decide on the best-suited non clinical job after completing your dental degree.
Most of these job profiles may not require you to earn your licensure so you can save time and money by choosing a non clinical job for dentists.
See Also
Non Clinical Jobs for Physical Therapists
Medical Device Clinical Trials
How to Become a Dermatologist?
Non Clinical Physician Assistant Jobs
Nurse Practitioner Salary in the US
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