Do dentists have the most satisfying job in the world?

BENGALURU: As a child, I thought the profession with the highest job satisfaction is that of a train driver.To be able to honk and arrive at a station, have hundreds of people clamour to rush into your vehicle at every station, and then travel through farms, forests, and hills – surely nothing could beat that?

As an adult, I earn my living as a writer and standup comedian. While they might seem interesting professions from the outside, they are actually thankless jobs. A writer is like a sculptor chipping away at an imaginary rock, with no idea about the completion. As a standup comedian, I hone my trade everyday in front of bored, drunk audiences who do not shy away from letting me know what they think of me and my jokes.

Life has moved on, and I completely believe that in today’s times, dentists have the most satisfactory jobs in the world. Not only do they earn a stable income, theirs is a field that has money flowing in like the monsoons – regularly, and in satisfactory amounts.

Dentists have a variety of tasks that can help them deal with the frustrations of a day. Having a cranky, frustrating day? Just grit your teeth and uproot a tooth or two! Feeling empty inside? Fill a cavity, cap a chipped tooth. Even the most powerful people in the world have to splay themselves out in front of you. Even the most argumentative scholar has to lie down in front of you with their mouth open, but without uttering a single word.

Even the wisest person in the world is helpless in front of a dentist, who can uproot their wisdom tooth in a few minutes. If a client complains about your treatment, you can give them some local anaesthetic, and they smile gleefully for the next few hours. Unlike doctors in other fields who often have to deal with life-threatening diseases and conditions, dentists do not have to go through existential, life-scarring experiences. Nobody has died of a tooth being removed!

Then there is the matter of regularly flowing income. Dentists recommend that you visit them once in three months. Puberty arrives once a lifetime, you graduate from college only once, but you visit a dentist once in three months, year after year. And India as a market is a dentist’s dream, thanks to products like gutkha, zarda, khaini, and paan – enough for a dentists to gleefully sink their teeth into. India is also a nation with a gigantic sweet-tooth, and who else to uproot those sweet-teeth but hardworking dentists?

A dentist is one’s own boss, if one keeps aside the initial teething problems of the dentistry course one needs to complete. Dentists are accorded respect in society, and do not need to lie through their teeth while describing their job. Unlike medical seats, getting through a dentistry college is not like pulling teeth. And contrary to popular opinion, there is no monotony in a dentist’s job. Remember those ads that claim ‘9 out of 10 dentists recommend…’? One could be that 1 dentist who disagrees with the rest, and still lead a respectable life.

I spoke to a dentist friend of mine and she disagreed with all of my points. She claimed that dentists have to work long hours and go through the trauma of treating decayed, paan-stained teeth. But hey, you know what they say. The teeth are always whiter on the other side!

The author is a writer and comedian.