Dentist Resume: Examples, Template, and Resume Tips

Dentistry is one of the most in demand jobs at the moment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that dental jobs in the US would grow by about 7% between 2018 and 2028, which is faster than the national average for all occupations.

In the year 2018, there were over 155,000 dentists’ jobs in the United States.

Aside from being in great demand, being a dentist is one of the best careers today. The US News ranks dentists first in best healthcare jobs.

Dentistry is also ranked as second in best STEM jobs, second in 100 best jobs, and tenth in best paying jobs.

According to the BLS, the median pay for dentists is $75.12 per hour, or $156,240 annually.

While the above statistics paint a good picture for those pursuing careers in dentistry, they also mean one thing – if you are applying for a job as a dentist, you are going to face a lot of competition.

With your qualifications, experience, and good personality, I believe that convincing the interviewing panel that you are the best person for the job shouldn’t be much of a problem. Well, provided you get invited to the interview!

With so much competition for dentistry jobs, you can bet that hiring managers are swarmed with hundreds of resumes from eager candidates, and obviously, all these candidates won’t make it to the interviewing stage. Additionally, hiring managers are not going to read through all these resumes.

Therefore, if you want to get invited to the interview, where you can wow them with your excellent skills and awesome personality, you first need to make sure that your dentist resume stands out from the rest and can catch the attention of the hiring manager with a single glance.

If you are wondering how to create such a resume, smile, because by the end of this guide, you’ll know how to write an amazing dentist resume.

And after all, you are in the businesses of giving people the confidence to smile, so you should do more of it yourself.

Before we dive into how to create a dentist resume, I want to let you know that if you want to save time and have a stunning resume in under 5 minutes, you should try out our resume builder.

All you need to do is to pick a template that suits you, add your content, and the resume builder will do the rest for you.

GREAT DENTIST RESUME EXAMPLES

To give you a good idea of the kind of resume you should aim for, let’s start by looking at some examples of great dentist resumes.

Highly Experienced Dentist Resume Sample

Entry Level Dentist Resume Sample, No Experience

WHICH FORMAT SHOULD YOU USE FOR YOUR DENTIST RESUME?

As a dentist, you don’t just direct every patient to the dental operating chair. You first need to check their charts, records, or x-rays to help you determine the best way to proceed.

Similarly, recruiters don’t read through every resume that comes their way.

With hundreds of resume to review, they most they can do is to give you resume a short glance – lasting a whole 6 seconds – to determine whether it needs a second look.

If your resume doesn’t do a good job of convincing them that it is worthy of a second look, you can forget about the job. Question is, how do you convince a recruiter that you are worthy of their time within six seconds?

The key lies in making their work easy for them, and the best way to do this is to use the reverse-chronological format in your dentist resume.

The chronological format starts by highlighting your dental experience, as well as your key responsibilities and achievements, starting from the most recent, and then moves on to your academic qualifications. This makes it easy for the recruiter to see at a glance your current level of experience.

This saves them from having to read through lots of content to know whether you are qualified for the job.

You also need to use professional resume fonts that are easily legible, ensure the different sections of your resume have proper headings, and use lots of white space.

Remember, the aim is to make it easy for the recruiter to quickly find whatever information they are looking for.

Finally, I recommend saving your dentist resume in PDF format. PDF files render the same way on different devices, which means that your resume will appear the same way on the recruiter’s device as it does on yours.

If you save it as a Word Document, it might appear differently on the recruiter’s device, making it harder to find some information.

However, it is also advisable to check if the employer has specified the format they want resumes to be submitted in, since they might be using an Applicant Tracking System that does not support PDF files.

WRITING THE PERSONAL INFORMATION SECTION OF YOUR DENTIST RESUME

This is the part which lets the recruiter or hiring manager know who you are, what your profession is, and how they can get in touch with you.

It should always be the first section in your dentist resume. Below is an example of how to write the personal information section of your dentist resume:

For dentists, as well as other professionals in the healthcare sector, you need to be licensed before you can practice. No employer will touch you with a ten foot pole if you are not licensed. This is why it is very important to include your professional license number in the personal information section. The number should come just below your professional title. Make sure that your number is updated or renewed, because most employers will check with the licensing board to check whether your license is up to date.

You also need to make sure that your email address looks professional. For example, mattlong@gmail.com looks professional, while drillsergeantmatt@gmail.com does not.

If you don’t have a professional email, create one before sending out your resume. It won’t take you more than five minutes.

Finally, you also need to include a link to your LinkedIn profile, since majority of recruiters might want to check you out on LinkedIn before they invite you to a job interview.

RESUME SUMMARY VS. RESUME OBJECTIVE: WHICH SHOULD YOU USE IN YOUR DENTIST RESUME?

After the personal information section comes the section where you provide an overview of who you are as a professional.

The aim of this section is to quickly show that you have what the employer is looking for and convince the recruiter to go through the rest of your resume. Question is, should you use a resume summary or a resume objective?

Well, the answer to this depends on the experience you have as a dentist. If you have enough experience as a dentist, you should go for a resume summary. The summary gives an overview of your key experiences, skills, and achievements as a dentist.

Below is an example of a great resume summary for a dentist resume:

If you just came out of dentistry school and have not gained any meaningful experience as a dentist, you should go for a resume objective. The objective gives an overview of your skills, the goals you intend to achieve in your career, and how they are aligned to the goals of your prospective employer.

Below is an example of how to write a resume objective for your dentist resume:

While the resume summary or objective appears immediately after the personal information section of your resume, you should write it last, because it is basically a summary of the information contained in the rest of your dentist resume.

SHOWCASING YOUR STELLAR EXPERIENCE AS A DENTIST

Just like you, many of the candidates you are competing against will have some experience working as dentists. Fortunately, you can still beat them by describing your experience the right way.

Take a look at the following example:

Now, compare it to the following:

Both examples refer to the same work experience, but you can probably tell that the first candidate will get invited to the job interview while the second one will not.

The first candidate goes into the details of what the work involved, and where possible, uses numbers to quantify their achievements.

Well, what if you have not gained any meaningful experience as a dentist? Nothing to worry about. Just think of any experience you have that is related to dentistry.

Have you worked as a dental assistant? Have you interned under a renowned dentist? Mention this in your experience section and describe what you did or what you achieved.

If you are a first time dentist with absolutely no experience that is related to dentistry or oral care, you can include other non-dental work in your resume, but it should come after the education section of your dental resume.

This way, the main highlight of your resume will be your academic qualifications.

Alternatively, you can avoid including the non-dental experience entirely, meaning your resume is not going to have an experience section.

SHINING THE SPOTLIGHT ON YOUR EDUCATION IN YOUR DENTIST RESUME

When it comes to jobs in the healthcare sector, employers will want to know that you have the right academic qualifications, because you are dealing with people’s lives.

A single mistake could have huge ramifications for a patient’s life, and therefore, you need to show that you have the necessary education for the job. This applies even when it comes to dentistry jobs. You need to showcase your education in your dentist resume.

Below is an example of how to list your education on your dentist resume.

Note that in the example above, we only have two listings in the education section. To be a dentist, you first need a bachelor’s degree before getting into dental school, where you will pursue your doctoral program in a dental related field, such as Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) or Doctor of Dental Medicine (DDM). Since you have already attained higher education levels, there is no point in listing your high school education.

If your education section is more impressive compared to your work experience, the education section should come first in your dentist resume.

HOOK YOUR PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYER BY LISTING YOUR SKILLS IN YOUR DENTAL RESUME

The good thing is that you already graduated from dental school, got licensed, and already have some work experience under your belt.

The bad thing is that most of the other candidates applying for the dentist position you are applying to also have similar education, a license to practice, and some work experience.

Sure, your academic qualifications might be better, or you might be more experienced than them, but if you want to really stand out and beat your competitors, it is your skills that will give you that edge you need.

It is unlikely that you will have the same skills as most of the other candidates, and if you can highlight the skills that the recruiter is looking for, you will increase your chances of getting invited to the job interview and possibly bagging that dentist position you have wanted so bad.

Some skills you might consider including in your dentist resume include:

• Four handed dentistry
• X-ray machine operation
• Preventative dentistry
• Restorative procedures
• Traditional and laser whitening
• Communication skills
• Manual dexterity
• Problem solving
• Interpersonal skills
• Collaboration and team work
• Orthodontics
• Prosthodontics
• Pediatric dentistry
• Oral radiology
• Dental hygiene
• Maxillofacial surgery
• Cosmetic dentistry
• Endodontics

However, just because you have this list of dentist skills doesn’t mean that you should include them all in your resume. The recruiter will obviously see that you are lying, because you cannot be possibly skilled in everything in the list.

What you need to do is to create a list of the skills you are really good at. Then go over to the job description and create a second list of the skills that the employer is looking for.

Cross reference the two lists and find the skills that appear in both lists.

These are the skills you need include in your resume. Ideally, aim for about 4 – 6 skills. It is also advisable to mix hard and soft skills in your dentist resume. For instance, you can have 4 hard skills and 2 soft skills.

WOW THE RECRUITER BY ADDING EXTRA SECTIONS IN YOUR DENTIST RESUME

Most people will end their resume at the skills section.

However, you are not most people. You want to be the person with an outstanding resume, the one who will be on the recruiter’s mind even before you show up for the interview.

To be that person, you need to go an extra step and add some extra sections in your resume, sections that show that you are really committed to your career as a dentist.

Some of the extra sections you should consider adding to your resume include:

Licenses

You cannot practice dentistry in the US if you do not have a license from the state in which you want to practice.

Therefore, you should list the state licenses you have, as well as any other licenses that allow you to practice special areas of dentistry, such as oral surgery.

Certifications

If you have some dental certifications, use them to strengthen your resume even further.

Volunteer Work

If you have done any volunteer dental work before, adding this volunteer experience can tip the scales in your favor.

Languages

Being a dentist involves dealing with people, and sometimes, the employer might want someone who is well versed in different languages.

Therefore, if you know more than one language, go ahead and list the other languages in your resume.

WRAPPING UP

At the beginning of this guide, I promised you that I would show you how to write an exceptional dentist resume, and by now, I believe that you are in a position to do exactly that.

Below is a recap of what you need to create an exceptional dentist resume:

• Use the reverse-chronological format to make it easier for recruiters to find information in your dentist resume.
• Capture the recruiter’s attention with an engaging dentist resume summary or objective.
• Showcase your stellar experience as a dentist, highlighting your key responsibilities and your achievements in each position.
• Show that you have the academic qualifications by highlighting your education.
• Highlight your strongest skills to set yourself apart and hook your prospective employer.
• Give yourself an edge by including additional sections in your resume.

That’s it. With that, your dentist resume will start attracting more job interview invitations. And remember, if you don’t want to do everything from scratch, you can always use our resume builder to create a professional dentist resume in just a few minutes.