General Dental Practice
The Majority of Dentists work in General Dental Practice. The normal career pathway is to complete your dental foundation training and then find a job in a dental practice as an assistant or as an associate dentist. After a few years you have the option of setting up your own dental practice and becoming a principle dentist.
There are a variety of different places you can work in General Dental Practice ranging from small clinics to large Polyclinics.
Dental practices are run as private businesses. Their funding either comes from one or two sources. Payment from patients directly for their care and payment from Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to provide a certain amount of dental treatment. Your wage is then paid by the dental practice. If you set up your own practice, you can take a share of the profits.