In the government sector, the average packages are Rs.50,000 a month (at the entry level), Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh a month (at the middle level) and Rs 1.5 lakh per month (at the senior level). In the private sector, the pay varies according to experience and expertise. A doctor with a good private practice can bring home handsome earnings.

10am: Reach hospital and carry out routine clinical treatments and see patients in OPD 
Noon: Do administrative work
1.30pm: Treat patients who have prior appointments
4.30pm: Meet staff/officials for next day’s appointments

• Creativity and an innate interest in health sciences
• Steady hands 
• Aptitude for learning new skills as dental procedures change often
• Ability to work tirelessly 
• Good communication skills
• A good sense of humour can help you break the ice with patients.
• Being a patient listener helps 
• Ability to oversee the accounts, payrolls etc in your clinic

• No late nights
• You can transform a person’s life by changing his/her appearance
• You might have to sit for long hours and the probability of sufferring from back pain is quite high.
• There is no correlation between your academic performance and earnings, it is a skill driven job

Take physics, chemistry and biology in Class 12 and then clear the pre-medical entrance examination of states/boards/institutions. After the five-year bachelor of dental surgery (BDS) course, you can go in for a postgraduate degree. There are several specialisations to choose from. The Indian Dental Association organises various continuing dental education (CDE) programmes which can help you update your  knowledge of modern dentistry. You also have the options of working in any private or public hospital or start your own private practice.

• Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi
• Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow
• R Ahmed Dental College, Kolkata
• Government Dental College, Mumbai
• Dental College, Dharwad, 
• KarnatakaCollege of Dental Sciences, Manipal
• GDC, Trivandrum