AI exposure: 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.
Reading this score
computedAt 10.0% of weighted task load, Dentists, General sits at the 14th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 76.6% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is accountability. Across this occupation's 20 tasks it averages 2.78 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, someone licensed has to sign the work. Capability and permission are different things. Where a statute or a professional body requires a named, liable human to approve the output, the work can be drafted by a machine and still require the person.
The most exposed thing this job does is Produce or evaluate dental health educational materials, at 60.0%. The least is Treat exposure of pulp by pulp capping, removal of pulp from pulp chamber, or root canal, at 0.0%. A gap of 60.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 18.5% across the group's 89 roles, with 80 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 20 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 3 assisted and 15 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.99 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.97 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 2.15 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.78 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.95 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.75 | 0-3 |
Task by task
20 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Produce or evaluate dental health educational materials. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 3.69 | exposed |
| Advise or instruct patients regarding preventive dental care, the causes and treatment of dental problems, or oral health care services. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.65 | exposed |
| Formulate plan of treatment for patient's teeth and mouth tissue. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.84 | assisted |
| Analyze or evaluate dental needs to determine changes or trends in patterns of dental disease. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.52 | assisted |
| Plan, organize, or maintain dental health programs. | 29.2% | 33.3% | 37.5% | 4.10 | assisted |
| Write prescriptions for antibiotics or other medications. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.44 | untouched |
| Design, make, or fit prosthodontic appliances, such as space maintainers, bridges, or dentures, or write fabrication instructions or prescriptions for denturists or dental technicians. | 5.2% | 11.5% | 83.3% | 4.70 | untouched |
| Manage business aspects such as employing or supervising staff or handling paperwork or insurance claims. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.57 | untouched |
| 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. | 3.7% | 13.0% | 83.3% | 4.85 | untouched |
| Diagnose and treat diseases, injuries, or malformations of teeth, gums, or related oral structures and provide preventive or corrective services. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.59 | untouched |
| Use masks, gloves, and safety glasses to protect patients and self from infectious diseases. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.98 | untouched |
| Administer anesthetics to limit the amount of pain experienced by patients during procedures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.91 | untouched |
| Use dental air turbines, hand instruments, dental appliances, or surgical implements. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.83 | untouched |
| Remove diseased tissue, using surgical instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.45 | untouched |
| Apply fluoride or sealants to teeth. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.26 | untouched |
| Eliminate irritating margins of fillings and correct occlusions, using dental instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Perform oral or periodontal surgery on the jaw or mouth. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Fill pulp chamber and canal with endodontic materials. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Bleach, clean, or polish teeth to restore natural color. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.10 | untouched |
| Treat exposure of pulp by pulp capping, removal of pulp from pulp chamber, or root canal, using dental instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.04 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.