Jobs / Healthcare / 29-1021.00
Dentists, General
Examine, diagnose, and treat diseases, injuries, and malformations of teeth and gums. May treat diseases of nerve, pulp, and other dental tissues affecting oral hygiene and retention of teeth. May fit dental appliances or provide preventive care.
- US jobs
- 124,390
- Median wage
- $170,950 a year
- Job family
- Healthcare
Can agents do the work of dentists, general?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Healthcare:
- Task levelPartialOne benchmark, from early 2025. On Stanford's MedAgentBench, where agents do clinical tasks in a simulated electronic health record, the best recorded model completes 69.7% of tasks (Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2). It has no maintained leaderboard, so newer models are not measured. No benchmark in our collection tests work with patients.
- Project levelPartialOnly adjacent evidence. GDPval includes nurses among its 44 occupations. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all occupations. No benchmark in our collection tests clinical work over days, such as managing a patient's care.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in healthcare, not always this occupation's tasks.
- 1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026Unrated
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Use masks, gloves, and safety glasses to protect patients and self from infectious diseases.
- Administer anesthetics to limit the amount of pain experienced by patients during procedures.
- Examine teeth, gums, and related tissues, using dental instruments, x-rays, or other diagnostic equipment, to evaluate dental health, diagnose diseases or abnormalities, and plan appropriate treatments.
- Formulate plan of treatment for patient's teeth and mouth tissue.
- Use dental air turbines, hand instruments, dental appliances, or surgical implements.
- Design, make, or fit prosthodontic appliances, such as space maintainers, bridges, or dentures, or write fabrication instructions or prescriptions for denturists or dental technicians.
- Advise or instruct patients regarding preventive dental care, the causes and treatment of dental problems, or oral health care services.
- Diagnose and treat diseases, injuries, or malformations of teeth, gums, or related oral structures and provide preventive or corrective services.
- Manage business aspects such as employing or supervising staff or handling paperwork or insurance claims.
- Analyze or evaluate dental needs to determine changes or trends in patterns of dental disease.
- Remove diseased tissue, using surgical instruments.
- Write prescriptions for antibiotics or other medications.
Other job titles for this occupation (11)
DDS (Dental Surgery Doctor) · Dentist · DMD (Dental Medicine Doctor) · Endodontist · Family Dentist · General Dentist · Pediatric Dentist · Pedodontist · Periodontist · Dental Officer · Public Health Dentist