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Professionals · code 2261

Dentists

AI can flag a cavity on an X-ray. It can't do the filling.

AI barely touches ten of the twelve tasks, including fillings and giving anaesthetics. Supervising staff and nagging patients to floss are mostly out of its reach too.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Dentists diagnose, treat and prevent diseases, injuries and abnormalities of the teeth, mouth, jaws and associated tissues by applying the principles and procedures of modern dentistry. They use a broad range of specialized diagnostic, surgical and other techniques to promote and restore oral health. Tasks include - (a) diagnosing diseases, injuries, irregularities and malformations of teeth and associated structures in the mouth and jaw using a range of methods such as radiographs, salivary tests and medical histories; (b) providing preventative oral health care such as periodontal treatments, fluoride applications and oral health promotion; (c) administering anaesthetics to limit the amount of pain experienced by patients during procedures; (d) prescribing medication for relief of ongoing pain after procedures (e) providing restorative oral care such as implants, complex crown and bridge restorations and orthodontics, and repairing damaged and decayed teeth; (f) providing surgical treatments such as extraction of teeth and biopsy of tissue, and performing orthodontic treatment; (g) measuring and taking impressions of patients’ jaws and teeth in order to determine the shape and size of dental prostheses; (h) designing, making, and fitting prosthodontic appliances such as space maintainers, bridges and dentures, or writing fabrication instructions or prescriptions for dental prosthetic technicians; (i) restoring oral function with removable and fixed oral prostheses; (j) assisting in diagnosing general diseases having oral manifestations such as diabetes; (k) educating patients and families on dental hygiene, nutrition and other measures to take care of oral health; (l) supervising dental hygienists, dental assistants and other staff. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Dental practitioner - Dental surgeon - Dentist - Endodontist - Oral and maxillofacial surgeon - Oral pathologist - Orthodontist - Paedodontist - Periodontist - Prosthodontist - Stomatologist Note Occupations included in this category normally require completion of university-level training in theoretical and practical dentistry or a related field. Although in some countries “stomatology” and “dental, oral and maxillofacial surgery” may be considered as medical specializations, occupations in these fields should always be classified here.

  • dental practitioner
  • specialist dentist

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

85 / 100

Strongly holds up against AI

Most of this job still needs an actual human. AI would mostly be making the tea.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Not Exposed

75 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 12 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 14.9 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 14.9 = 85.1.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy

It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 51 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Dentists 85

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Reading X-rays with AI support.
  • Treatment planning and records.
  • Reminders and patient education.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Treatment and surgery by hand.
  • Calming anxious patients.
  • Diagnosis with the whole patient in mind.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Checking AI-flagged findings.
  • Digital scans and 3D-printed crowns and aligners.
  • Explaining AI-assisted diagnoses to patients.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

19 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 66 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Some

51 how hands-on

A fair part of this job is hands-on, so robots would be needed for that part, not just software.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Physical work where helping and caring for people is a big part of the job. For care work, whether a machine could do the movements is only half the question. The other half is whether anyone wants one to. The US data counts helping workmates too, so a few trades end up here.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 51 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

51 How
hands-on
51 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, helping and caring for others

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 4 US jobs .

finger skill 65.1 · hand skill 62 · cramped spaces 26.3 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · caring 4+ of 7

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 27, against an average of 15. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 27

    Supervising dental hygienists, dental assistants and other staff.

    Low
  2. 26

    Educating patients and families on dental hygiene, nutrition and other measures to take care of oral health

    Low
  3. 21

    Assisting in diagnosing general diseases having oral manifestations such as diabetes

    Very Low
  4. 17

    Prescribing medication for relief of ongoing pain after procedures

    Very Low
  5. 15

    Designing, making and fitting prosthodontic appliances such as space maintainers, bridges, and dentures, or writing fabrication instructions or prescriptions for dental prosthetic technicians

    Very Low
  6. 14

    Diagnosing diseases, injuries, irregularities and malformations of teeth and associated structures in the mouth and jaw using a range of methods such as radiographs, salivary tests and medical histories

    Very Low
  7. 12

    Providing preventative oral health care such as periodontal treatments, fluoride applications and oral health promotion

    Very Low
  8. 12

    Providing surgical treatments such as extraction of teeth, biopsy of tissue, and performing orthodontic treatment

    Very Low
  9. 11

    Restoring oral function with removable and fixed oral prostheses

    Very Low
  10. 11

    Measuring and taking impressions of patients' jaws and teeth in order to determine the shape and size of dental prostheses

    Very Low
  11. 10

    Providing restorative oral care such as implants, complex crown and bridge restorations, and orthodontics, and repairing damaged and decayed teeth

    Very Low
  12. 7

    Administering anaesthetics to limit the amount of pain experienced by patients during procedures

    Very Low

12 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
66
AI does it for you
19

Sidekick wins, by 47 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2523

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Tiny sample alert This job makes up 0.01% of all the conversations: a tiny slice, mostly the paperwork rather than the work. People using AI for a job isn't the same as AI being able to do it.

Out of every 100 conversations

57
43

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should dentists be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

No. The most exposed tasks are supervising staff and educating patients, both Low; diagnosis and treatment rate Very Low. AI is already helping read X-rays and plan treatment. The hands, the judgement and the patient's trust stay with the dentist.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” family, averaging 61. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →