Prosthodontist

It sounds like the name of a dinosaur, but a Prosthodontist is actually a specialized Dentist. There are only nine dental specialties recognized by the ADA (that’s the American Dental Association), and this is one of them. As a Prosthodontist, you spend your days making and inserting dentures, tooth implants, crowns, and bridges—anything to improve the structure and look of a person’s smile.

A patient comes to a Prosthodontist when they have a dental problem that their regular Dentist can’t handle. They might be missing several teeth and need dental implants, or their teeth could be intact but need crowns.

Your daily duties include seeing patients, advising them on the kind of work their teeth need, and performing the actual procedures. Your patients might come to you with a purely aesthetic problem (like unsightly, discolored teeth), or they might be experiencing pain and need your help to get rid of it. Either way, you have to have excellent communication skills and a warm bedside manner. You explain every procedure before you do it, and then work with your patients afterward to make sure they’re healing well.

The aesthetic work you do include veneers—strong porcelain coverings that improve the color or shape of the teeth—and teeth whitening or bleaching. You create dentures and fill in missing teeth with partial bridges not only to polish people’s smiles, but also to lessen pain and improve their way of life.