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Dentistry is an old and noble profession but doesn’t lend itself easily to fame. However, some dentists have managed to make a name for themselves independent of their work taking care of patients’ mouths. We’ve identified several of the most prominent dentists who achieved fame or notoriety for themselves far from their dental chairs.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg all famously dropped out of school before graduating. As it turns out, tech entrepreneurs aren’t the only celebrities who quit school. And a handful of notable stars even considered careers in dentistry! Here we have listed four well-known almost-dentists, who either considered or enrolled in dental school before being pulled elsewhere.

Dentists may not think about their supplies much, but they typically spend $50,000 each year stocking their offices with everything from anesthetics to x-ray holders.¹ Historically, dentists have turned to large, established distributors to purchase their products, but today's landscape is rapidly changing.

There seems to be a trend of late of individuals increasingly taking control of their oral care. In some respects, this is wonderful for the profession, and for oral health more broadly. At long last, more folks are recognizing the importance of oral care for overall bodily health. One can only hope that, over time, this leads to greater emphasis on regularly seeing a dentist and better adhering to prophylactic treatments and methodologies, from fluoridating teeth to flossing to brushing.

Chicago Dental Society - September 2018.
The stereotyping says young dentists are risk-averse, don’t want to scrimp and save to venture into the dog-eat-dog world of small business ownership, and would rather work for a lucrative salary so they can plunk down monthly payments for a shiny new “beamer.” However, there’s a 29-year-old named Scott Drucker who splits his time between nurturing a start-up business in a healthcare incubator hub in the Merchandise Mart and traveling the country supporting that business, and also spends a day practicing dentistry at an office more than 40 miles from his home