Dentist Salary Australia 2024: Average Pay, Trends & Insights

Why be a Dentist in Australia in 2024?

• Australia's dental field faces a shortage, ensuring good job prospects and competitive pay.

• Dentists in Australia enjoy a high quality of life, with access to beautiful beaches and a relaxed lifestyle.

• Australian dental qualifications are respected globally, offering opportunities for international practice.

• Dentists contribute significantly to patient well-being by maintaining oral health, directly impacting overall health.

• Dentistry in Australia offers a range of specializations and work settings for career customization.

Dentistry is a booming field, and when discussing dentist salaries, Australia has some of the best packages. The average dental salary in Australia is higher than in most other countries, making Australian immigration very lucrative. If you’re looking for a job in dentistry, Australia should be one of your options. 

In this blog, we have packaged all the important information related to dentistry and the average dentist salary Australia. All the information regarding salaries, factors influencing it, regional differences, and so on are covered below for your convenience. Happy reading! 

Understanding Average Dentist Salary in Australia 

Dentistry in Australia has almost a magnetic pull on dentists and future aspirants due to the successful careers that the country offers to dentists. To work as a dentist in Australia, you need to be licensed by the Dental Board of Australia, the leading authority overseeing dental regulations and practices in the country. 

Currently, the average annual dentist salary Australia offers lies between 190,000 AUD and 250,000 AUD. The dentist salary Australia per hour is about 120 AUD to 125 AUD. 

The average dentist salary Australia offers varies from state to state. The state-wise breakup is listed below. 

Factors Affecting Dentist Salary Australia 

Like most other jobs, the dentist salary Australia offers can be determined by a variety of factors. These factors determine the nuances of one’s income and can also determine how much growth you, as a dentist, can expect in your career. 

1. Location 

The region where you practise dentistry will affect the dentist salary Australia can give you. If your practice is in a big city like Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane, you will earn the big bucks and be paid well. You can expect a salary well above the average pay rate, maybe even exorbitantly so. However, if your practice is in one of the rural regions of Australia, your salary, while meeting the average and being higher than in other countries, will be lower than that of the big cities. That is no reason to be discouraged, though, as the dentist salary Australia gives the specialists in rural areas still earn quite well! Plus, you can have a better rapport with your clients and establish connections with a client base, ensuring clients for life. 

2. Specialisation 

Specialisations in dentistry also affect your payment quite significantly. There are over 10 types of specializations you can choose from in dentistry. Each of them is paid differently and earns differently as well. Oral and maxillofacial surgery is the highest-paid specialisation in dentistry, followed by dental anesthesiologists and orthodontists. If you have already decided that you want to pursue dentistry in Australia, you may choose a specialisation based on which one pays the best as well as in what part of Australia. 

Also Read: Dentist Job in Australia: Experts Latest Guide in 2024

3. Type Of Practice

The type of practice you conduct also influences the dentist salary Australia can offer. If you have a private practice, you can earn significantly more than you might be able to in a public practice. In a private dental clinic, you have more flexibility and ownership. You can also take on leadership and managerial roles and are responsible for yourself. In public practice, your payment will be less than what you can earn in your clinic. However, it has more job security, medical benefits, and scope for networking and connections than a private dental practice does. 

4. Experience 

This is the most significant factor contributing to the dentist's salary Australia can bring for you. The more experienced you become over time, the higher your salary will invariably get. By gaining more experience, you are also gaining the trust of your clients, and you can rely on word of mouth for your publicity. Dentists who are freshers will earn significantly less than advanced-level professionals. The latter can earn salaries that go way beyond the average dentist salary Australia can offer. 

Regional Variances In Dentist Salaries

As we have discussed before, the region you choose to work in will significantly affect the dentist's salary in Australia per hour or annually. While bigger cities like Sydney and Melbourne offer higher salaries, smaller, regional cities like Hobart offer lesser, although still significantly above the global average. The dentist's salary in Australia per month is thus determined by external and regional factors as well.

Sydney and Melbourne are the cities with the highest pay for dentists. The table below indicates the average dentist salary Australia per hour and year in some of the most important and well-paying cities in the country. 

Top Specialisations of Dentistry in Australia 

The specialisation you choose will also significantly affect your salary. The following 6 specialisations are the most highly paid ones and have the highest dentist salary in Australia per month. 

How To Become A Dentist In Australia?

There are three pathways you can choose from to pursue dentistry in Australia. 

• First, you can pursue the course itself in Australia from an institute recognized by the Australian Dental Council. 

• Second, if you have already obtained a degree from Canada or the United Kingdom, your degree is still valid in Australia, and you can work here.

• Finally, if you have completed the dentistry course from some other country, including India, you must validate your dentistry degree in Australia. 

Dentists with qualifications from India must go through one of the two pathways to practise as a dentist in Australia:

• You can either complete an education program approved by the Australian Dental Council to prove your competency,

• You can also go through an assessment conducted by the Australian Dental Council to validate your degree. This assessment can only be undertaken if you have graduated with a dental degree, which was at least 4 years long, and have a licence to practise in that country. 

Also Read: How to Go to Australia from India for Job? Experts Guide

The assessment process with the ADC looks like this:

• The first round of assessment requires you to share the details of your qualifications through documents, work experience (if any), and registration history. This process will take at least 8 weeks. 

• The second round involves a written examination, which will span over two days. Your knowledge and reasoning skills related to dentistry and judgement for your patients will be tested. This will happen anytime within 5 months of your initial first assessment. 

• The last round is the practical examination, which will test your competence in real life. This is also spread over two days as there are two exams: clinical skills and technical skills. You can take this exam anytime within 3 years of your written exam. 

Top Recruiting Industries For Dentists In Australia

Depending on where you work, your dentist salary in Australia per month will be different.

Conclusion

The dentist's salary in Australia per month is very high and desirable. Dentists in Australia receive significantly higher salaries compared to those in many other countries. As a dentist, you will be practising one of the top-paid professions in Australia. Moving to Australia to work as a dentist is definitely a great choice, not just because of the salaries the country offers but also because of the overall conducive work environment and quality of life that the country has. Medical professions are one of the most sought-after positions in Australia and are, therefore, the most well-paid.

Be it a government job, a public hospital or a private practice, you can expect a high quality of work, a hospitable and supportive work environment and good work growth. The dentistry industry is expected to grow by a whopping 8 per cent within the next five years, so moving to Australia for dentistry is a safe and profitable bet. 

If you are a dentist thinking of immigrating to Australia, then TerraTern is here to help you through the process. With services curated carefully and an expert team, TerraTern can take you through the process, making it easy for you!