Find a Job You Really Want In
Yes, medical/dental Instruments is a good career path if you’re looking for a profession with longevity, human interaction, and one that’s challenging and always changing. Medical and dental instruments are a huge field, covering some pretty broad areas, from manufacturing to sales to being an expert technician and running the equipment.
If this sounds good, the following list of jobs will give you an idea of what professions are in the Medical/Dental Instruments field.
The 5 Best-Paying Jobs in Medical/Dental Instruments
The medical and dental instruments field includes many different professions, from people who make the devices to those who sell devices, and eventually, they end up in the hands of experts who use the devices. Throughout that chain, there are a lot of opportunities to earn a large paycheck. These are just some of the best-paying jobs in dental or medical instruments.
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Medical Instrument Sales
Average Annual Salary: N/A
It’s a broad category, but this is one of those jobs where if you’re a great salesperson, you can slip in at entry-level and work your way up the ladder to becoming one of the best salespeople around. Your paycheck is definitely going to reflect your sales ability.
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Average Annual Salary: $86,000
The quality assurance engineer oversees and reviews validation processes and procedures for medical instrument and equipment production.
That can include the physical instruments themselves, the equipment used to make them, and any software used in the application of the instruments. This individual will have years of experience and advanced degrees, and they will earn a lot of money.
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Medical Device Engineer
Average Annual Salary: N/A
At the senior level of this business, you’ll be troubleshooting, disassembling, and reassembling medical devices and instruments. You’ll need to understand how they work, what can be done to adjust them and make them better and be able to upgrade and repair them quickly.
It’s not just mechanical skills that are required; you need to have good computer skills and documentation abilities and hold an advanced degree.
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Average Annual Salary: $357,000
At the user end of the spectrum, there are a lot of specialists and doctors who use medical instruments, and they’re part of this industry too. Lumping several different specialties together, any doctor who performs surgeries is going to have a high-paying job, and they’re going to be using medical instruments constantly, from simple scalpels to incredibly high-tech equipment.
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Average Annual Salary: $199,000
The medical and dental instruments field definitely has a role in orthodontia, as it’s all about using different dental instruments to straighten, align, support, and even replace teeth. To be an orthodontist, you’re going to face about a decade of advanced education, but you will be entering one of the highest-paying professions in this field.
10 Entry-Level Jobs in Medical/Dental Instruments
There are a huge number of ways to get your foot in the door of the medical and dental instruments industry and start making money. Some of those jobs are going to be fantastic, and they’ll easily become a career you love; some will just be an entry-level jobs so you can gain experience and move up the ladder. The best part is you get to choose how to sculpt your medical and dental instruments career.
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Medical and Dental Instrument Sales
Average Annual Salary: N/A
This is one of the rare times where an entry-level position is also potentially one of the highest-paying positions in a field. Sales is a unique business, and if you’re good at selling, you don’t need any advanced degrees; you just need the right personality. What a great reason to start in this business.
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Average Annual Salary: $37,000
Most medical devices need to be completely sterile, which means that someone needs to sterilize the instruments. You’ll find that there are sterile processing techs at manufacturing facilities and in medical offices. You’ll be trained on the job, but after that, you’re on your own. It’s an important job that needs someone who can pay close attention to details.
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Average Annual Salary: $30,000
On the manufacturing side of things is the production assembler job. In some plants, this job will be fairly easy, and in others, you’ll have more work to do to put products together, and you’ll have a lot of responsibility. It all depends on where you work and what your assignment is, but this can easily be an entry-level job.
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Sales Service Representative
Average Annual Salary: N/A
Sales play a huge role in the medical and dental instrument business, which means that service is also important. Working as a sales service representative will require some on-the-job training and some knowledge of the equipment and possibly computer programs involved, but it can be an entry-level position for the right person.
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Average Annual Salary: $36,000
Working in a medical office, the medical supply tech is often an entry-level position, but it requires a lot of organizational skills and may require more tasks, too. In many places, this individual is not just responsible for maintaining supplies but also for keeping them in good working condition. It takes training but not formal education.
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Entry-Level Dental Technician
Average Annual Salary: N/A
The dental field is a solid and stable professional path. Unfortunately, there are a lot of openings – which can be great if you want to start right after high school with no formal education. You’ll be trained in the office on how to use the dental instruments necessary to do your job, and you’ll be able to ensure you have a long-lasting career.
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Average Annual Salary: $31,000
Here’s an easy way to get your foot in the door of a medical instruments company, especially if you’re strong – work in the warehouse. Most companies in this business are always looking for people to work in the warehouse. It’s a difficult job, physically, but it’s a steady job, and you can learn about the business and the products.
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Asset Management Technician
Average Annual Salary: N/A
This profession is often found in hospitals, and the only requirements are that you have a high school diploma or the equivalent and a driver’s license. Your duties will be processing and maintaining records on movable medical equipment.
You might be moving a portable machine from one part of the hospital to another and keeping it cleaned and sterilized as part of your daily duties.
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Medical Packager
Average Annual Salary: N/A
The medical packager works in the manufacturing facility and ensures that all equipment is packed safely and securely. Some people will be packing huge amounts of instruments, and sometimes it’s just one piece that needs careful attention. No matter what the equipment, this is an important job that requires attention to detail.
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Average Annual Salary: $44,000
In larger hospitals, you’ll find several repair technicians who are responsible for assessing issues with medical instruments, repairing them, and cleaning and prepping equipment. You’ll work under a manager and often have on-the-job training, but this can be an entry-level job.
This position is also a traveling job, and you may be hired to travel to different locations to do repairs and maintenance.
Why Choose a Career in Medical/Dental Instruments
The medical and dental instruments business is all about helping people, just like any other job in health care. Of course, the way you approach helping people is often quite different than that of a doctor, but you’re still an important part of the overall picture. But that’s not the only benefit.
Working in this industry also brings a lot of other benefits that will make it clear why you should pursue a career in Medical/Dental Instruments.
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Job security. Health care may change in its approach; the technology is ever evolving, and who knows what will eventually happen with insurance, but one thing is certain, there will always be a need for people working in the instrument side of medicine and dentistry.
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Well-Paying. There are a lot of different paths you can go down in this business, and the great news is there is the potential to earn a sizeable income no matter which of those paths you follow.
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Helping others. If you like the idea of helping others but really don’t want to become a doctor or a nurse, this industry might be a great fit for you. You get the satisfaction of knowing that what you do matters; for some, it can make a life-saving difference.
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Challenging and rewarding. For people who are active, energetic, and always ready to learn, this is the field for you. Dental and medical instruments change frequently, and you’re going to need to stay on top of those changes, which will make your job challenging, but in a good way.
Education and Certification Requirements for a Career in Medical/Dental Instruments
This is such a vast field that you might find a job in medical and dental instruments that requires only a high school diploma, or you might want to be a surgeon who has a specialty that requires you to be in school for a decade or more. The following are some possible educational requirements you might run into.
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High school or GED. The first step is getting your high school degree or a GED. This is typically a requirement for any job in the medical and dental instruments industry. You may be able to find a job in manufacturing or warehouses that don’t require it, but your odds of finding employment are better with this base-level education.
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On-the-job training. No matter what profession you choose in this field, you’re going to have a lot of on-the-job training. This is a constantly changing field with new instruments being introduced regularly. You’ll need to stay on top of this information; for some, it’s a simple understanding of what’s new, and for others, that will require a mastery of the instruments.
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Associates or tech certifications. If you want to advance in a technical or medical direction in the field of medical and dental instruments, then getting some certificates from a technical school or getting an associate’s degree can make that possible for you.
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Bachelor’s degree. Moving up in the medical field, design, and engineering side of things is going to require a bachelor’s degree. What you specialize in is all related to what area you’re interested in.
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Master’s degree. Just like the bachelor’s degree, some specialties are going to require advanced degrees. Some people will cap out here and not have to go further; for others, there’s still more education ahead.
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Medical Doctor or Dentist. If you’re going to go into dentistry or become a medical doctor, you’re still working in the medical instruments industry, but you’re coming at it from the user standpoint.
That means you’re going to be in school for a long time, and you’ll be earning a lot of degrees and certificates that go beyond your medical degree and prove you’re a professional in your specialty.
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Additional certifications. Sometimes the instruments themselves require specialized training and a certificate that proves you know how to safely and effectively sterilize, maintain, repair, and/or run the equipment. These are the additional education requirements that can crop up in this industry.
What Do People Working in Medical/Dental Instruments Do?
People working in medical and/or dental instruments work in the health care industry to provide vital tools used in medical and dental practice. There are a lot of different avenues you can pursue in this industry; some will require no education, and others will require a serious amount of education and advanced degrees.
All of the jobs will require constantly updating on the industry and the offerings because it’s constantly changing. Working in medical and/or dental instruments means you’re working in the health care industry. This is always going to be a field of vital importance to people and your job, no matter what you do, is critical.
You could be saving lives in big ways or just be a part of the entire process. This is meaningful work, and it can make this the best job there is. Who knows, maybe those instruments will one day save your life or the life of one of your loved ones.
Author
Kristin Kizer is an award-winning writer, television and documentary producer, and content specialist who has worked on a wide variety of written, broadcast, and electronic publications. A former writer/producer for The Discovery Channel, she is now a freelance writer and delighted to be sharing her talents and time with the wonderful Zippia audience.
