Dental assistants and therapists
In the ILO's assessment few of the job's tasks can be done by generative AI, or the scores are too spread out to reach gradient 1 — generative AI does not meaningfully take over the core of the work.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
The AI analysis for this occupation is still being prepared — the background process covers a few occupations every day.
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Advising communities and individuals on dental hygiene, diet and other preventive measures to reduce potential risks to oral health38
- Identifying cases of patients with poor oral health or oral disease requiring referral to a dentist or other health professional22
- Getting patients ready for examination or treatment including explaining procedures and correct positioning17
- Preparing, cleaning and sterilizing dental instruments, equipment and materials used in the examination and treatment of patients15
- Taking impressions of the mouth and dental radiographs to support diagnosis and fitting of dental prosthetics.14
- Assisting dentists during complex dental procedures10
- Conducting visual and physical examinations of patients' mouths, teeth and related structures to assess oral health status10
- Providing fluoride treatments, cleaning and removing deposits from teeth, preparing cavities and placing fillings, administering local anaesthesia, and performing other types of basic or routine clinical dental procedures8
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Advising communities and individuals on dental hygiene, diet and other preventive measures to reduce potential risks to oral health(38)
- Identifying cases of patients with poor oral health or oral disease requiring referral to a dentist or other health professional(22)
- Getting patients ready for examination or treatment including explaining procedures and correct positioning(17)
- Preparing, cleaning and sterilizing dental instruments, equipment and materials used in the examination and treatment of patients(15)
- Taking impressions of the mouth and dental radiographs to support diagnosis and fitting of dental prosthetics.(14)
- Assisting dentists during complex dental procedures(10)
- Conducting visual and physical examinations of patients' mouths, teeth and related structures to assess oral health status(10)
- Providing fluoride treatments, cleaning and removing deposits from teeth, preparing cavities and placing fillings, administering local anaesthesia, and performing other types of basic or routine clinical dental procedures(8)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 16.)
About 0% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Advising communities and individuals on dental hygiene, diet and other preventive measures to reduce potential risks to oral health
- • Identifying cases of patients with poor oral health or oral disease requiring referral to a dentist or other health professional
- • Providing fluoride treatments, cleaning and removing deposits from teeth, preparing cavities and placing fillings, administering local anaesthesia, and performing other types of basic or routine clinical dental procedures
- • Conducting visual and physical examinations of patients' mouths, teeth and related structures to assess oral health status
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Health associate professionals group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Health associate professionals |
|---|---|
| Germany | 6.3% · 2,657 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 4.3% · 112 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 3.4% · 820 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 3.4% · 989 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 3.3% · 158 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 3.1% · 53 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 3.1% · 80 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 2.9% · 285 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 2.6% · 135 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 2.5% · 118 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 2.3% · 23 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 1.9% · 102 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 1.9% · 87 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 1.8% · 4 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 1.6% · 48 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 1.6% · 531 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 1.4% · 5 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 1.4% · 109 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 1.3% · 286 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 1.3% · 39 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 1.2% · 66 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 1.2% · 211 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 1.2% · 63 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 1.1% · 31 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 1.0% · 7 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 0.9% · 8 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 0.9% · 13 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 0.7% · 30 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 0.6% · 3 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 0.5% · 15 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Technicians and associate professionals). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland5,280
- Luxembourg4,320
- Norway4,307
- Denmark4,301
- Ireland4,024
- Belgium3,903
- Iceland3,856
- Germany3,608
- Austria3,399
- Netherlands3,247
- EU273,226
- Italy3,127
- Sweden3,089
- Finland2,971
- France2,687
- Spain2,685
- Slovenia2,660
- Cyprus2,537
- Lithuania2,472
- Malta2,464
- Romania2,310
- Poland2,294
- Czechia2,275
- Estonia2,251
- Croatia2,127
- Latvia2,081
- Hungary2,054
- Greece2,050
- Portugal2,044
- Slovakia2,027
- Bulgaria1,738
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Health associate professionals group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
Related occupations
- Medical records and health information technicians52
- Medical assistants35
- Health associate professionals not elsewhere classified30
- Dispensing opticians24
- Environmental and occupational health inspectors and associates24
- Community health workers22
- Ambulance workers22
- Physiotherapy technicians and assistants17
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?