Best Non-Clinical Jobs for Dentists – Overview
After earning your dental degree, becoming a dentist seems like the obvious choice. However, increasing numbers of aspiring dentists are seeking alternate, non-clinical career options.
Most of these people admit it’s a work preference and lifestyle need.
Dentists are immensely qualified professionals who can easily transition their skills into other fields, such as administration, research, product development, public health, or education.
Top 7 Non-Clinical Jobs for Dentists
Top Non-Clinical Jobs for Dentists
After you earn your dentistry degree, there are several different career options. Here’s our list of the best non-clinical jobs for dentists in 2022:
1 – Insurance coordinator
As an insurance coordinator, you must 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 essential in ensuring practitioners, patients and insurance companies have proper insurance settlements.
This job profile usually requires significant knowledge of computer and software usage and basic insurance policies.
If you are a dentist and have experience working with insurance companies, you can easily choose to become an insurance coordinator.
As an insurance coordinator, the annual average salary is approximately $41,000.
2 – Professor
Newly qualified dentists passionate about teaching and training the next generation can also choose to become professors.
Higher education institutes, like dental schools and universities, employ dental professors to teach students dental courses.
As a dental professor, you will develop lesson schedules, give lectures, organize clinical practices, resolve student queries, and guide students 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, the average annual salary is approximately $102,000.
3 – Patient Administration Specialist
A patient administration specialist must perform clerical tasks, such as compiling reports or processing patient paperwork.
They must 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 hospital discharge. To do this, you need to have strong clerical skills, such as computer literacy and organization.
As a patient administration specialist in the US, the average annual salary is approximately $38,000.
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 exciting 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 audiences according to the audience’s comprehension level.
Most medical writers are experienced professional healthcare workers, such as dentists, doctors and nurses.
You can work as a full-time, part-time or freelance medical writer.
The average annual salary for medical writers in the US is approximately $72,000.
5 – Healthcare Manager
The Healthcare Manager is responsible for organizing and supervising the management of a healthcare facility, such as a hospital or clinic.
They are well-read on the latest regulations and laws and help ensure that the healthcare facility always complies with them.
As a healthcare manager, you will manage budgets, identify staffing requirements, coordinate tasks between executives and healthcare practitioners, and develop efficiency-enhancing administrative systems.
These professionals also recommend the facility’s need for advanced technology and IT systems to support its operations more efficiently.
As a professional dentist, you can assume the role of a healthcare manager who offers dental care. However, you may need additional healthcare management training to do this job satisfactorily.
The average annual salary for healthcare managers in the US is approximately $100,980.
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.
Suppose you’ve already trained as a dentist and have in-depth knowledge of the industry and its requirements. After completing your dentistry studies, you can choose to become a medical sales executive.
As a medical sales executive in the US, the annual average salary is approximately $86,000.
7 – Research Scientist
As a research scientist, you will be working to conduct studies that contribute to dentistry with new knowledge.
As per your qualifications, 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 are passionate about research, you can easily transition into a research scientist.
The average annual salary for a research scientist in the US is approximately $99,000.
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 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
Non Clinical Physician Assistant Jobs
Nurse Practitioner Salary in the US
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