Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · Holland code IRS

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

Perform surgery and related procedures on the hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial regions to treat diseases, injuries, or defects. May diagnose problems of the oral and maxillofacial regions. May perform surgery to improve function or appearance.

Also called: DDS (Dental Surgery Doctor), Maxillofacial Surgeon, Oral Surgeon, Surgeon, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Resident.

O*NET 29-1022.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $352,220; Middle half earn $204,610 to $428,710. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: Post-Doctoral Training; 72% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 5 of 5; Extensive preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Administer general and local anesthetics.
Remove impacted, damaged, and non-restorable teeth.
Evaluate the position of the wisdom teeth to determine whether problems exist currently or might occur in the future.
Treat infections of the oral cavity, salivary glands, jaws, and neck.
Collaborate with other professionals, such as restorative dentists and orthodontists, to plan treatment.
Perform surgery to prepare the mouth for dental implants and to aid in the regeneration of deficient bone and gum tissues.
Remove tumors and other abnormal growths of the oral and facial regions, using surgical instruments.
Provide emergency treatment of facial injuries including facial lacerations, intra-oral lacerations, and fractured facial bones.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Critical Thinking4.1 / 5
Reading Comprehension4.0 / 5
Active Listening4.0 / 5
Writing3.9 / 5
Speaking3.9 / 5
Monitoring3.9 / 5

Knowledge areas

Medicine and Dentistry5.0 / 5
Biology4.5 / 5
Education and Training4.3 / 5
English Language4.2 / 5
Customer and Personal Service4.2 / 5
Administration and Management3.9 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic79
Investigative81
Artistic3
Social58
Enterprising19
Conventional43

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

dental practitioner · DE Zahnarzt/Zahnärztin · FR dentiste
specialist dentist · DE Fachzahnarzt/Fachzahnärztin · FR dentiste spécialiste
orthoptist · DE Orthoptist/Orthoptistin · FR orthoptiste
podiatrist · DE Podologe/Podologin · FR podologue
dentistry lecturer · DE Hochschullehrkraft für Zahnmedizin · FR maître de conférences des universités-praticien hospitalier d’odontologie/maîtresse de conférences des universités-praticienne hospitalière d’odontologie
dental technician · DE Zahntechniker/Zahntechnikerin · FR technicien de fabrication de matériel dentaire/technicienne de fabrication de matériel dentaire

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Dental practitioners (2253)34,800 employed
Optometrists (2252)18,900 employed
Occupational therapists (2222)56,000 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Japan

Japan classifies jobs in its own way. The closest category that names the same work is “歯科医師”, which may be narrower or broader than this occupation.

Median monthly pay: ¥792,600; Middle half earn ¥484,700 to ¥1,009,300 a month.
Workers in the category: 11,240; Regular employees in firms of ten or more.

Scheduled monthly pay before tax, excluding overtime and bonuses, so it is not comparable to the annual figures above. Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, via e-Stat, under the Japanese Government Standard Terms of Use. The category match was made by hand.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Professionals, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€61,714
Germany	€59,529
Ireland	€56,877
Austria	€55,374
Netherlands	€53,595
Sweden	€43,567
France	€41,515
Spain	€35,735
Italy	€33,649
Portugal	€26,072
Poland	€14,380

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of -0.24. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (29-1022).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

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