Dental Medicine (DMD)

What is A Dental Medicine (DMD) Degree?

Individuals who work in the dental health field are committed to educating and treating patients to maintain and improve their teeth and surrounding tissue.  Dentistry is an art and a science, where practitioners need to know many of the same things about the human body that physicians do and also know the craft of repairing teeth so that their repairs are realistic-looking and work well.  In addition, Dentists need to educate patients on good practices to maintain healthy teeth and gums. Dentists may see patients more than the primary care physicians see them, so it’s important that dentists know not just about teeth and gums but also about how mouth problems can be related to overall health.

Some dental practices specialize in procedures like orthodontics (braces), dental implants, or various surgical procedures like root canals.  Some schools of dentistry award a Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD) degree while others award a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree.  There is basically no difference between these two degrees, since both have similar courses in diseases of the mouth, oral biochemistry, oral surgery and medicine, orthodontics, and other topics.  After earning the Doctoral degree, in most geographical areas, dentists are required to have a license to practice general dentistry and additional licenses for specialties.  Dental educators recommend that a new dentist serve at least one year in a residency program, although it is not required to be able to go into practice.