Ever been told to "keep your hands to yourself"? Well, if you become an oral surgeon, you can forget about that little bit of advice. Being a good oral surgeon is all about being as hands-on as possible. And by hands-on, we means hands in other people's mouths.

Not a job for those who like their physical distance… (source).

In the United States, oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) is one of many specialties in dentistry. Basically, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon is someone who operates on the jaw and mouth (the "oral" part of the name) and possibly the upper jaw and the face (the "maxillofacial" part). 

Generally speaking, it's for "dentally interested" folks who want to take their dental practice to the next level without getting an M.D. Oh, and it's also a great gig for folks looking to make buckets of money. Like, $220,000 a year (source).

Everyone knows medical school is hard. But becoming an oral surgeon is no walk in the park either.

To get your hands on (i.e. into) people's mouths and call yourself an OMS, you'll need an undergraduate degree in science, four years in dental school, and another four years in a certificated OMS residency program. Or, if you're a masochist without any social life or need to sleep, you can pursue a dual-degree residency in OMS and MD. (That's six years instead.)

Oral surgery isn't some easier form of medical school, either. It's even longer. Which means more work, more loans, and more debt. If you're someone who's either bored out of your mind or is already falling behind in your AP Biology class, oral surgery isn't the place for you. 

If self-motivation is difficult for you (unless it's motivating yourself to binge-watch that new Netflix series...), there are plenty of great dental hygienist positions that pay well and won't get you into tons of debt pursuing a degree you won't finish.

If you're bad with budgeting, take a finance class and get good at it—or find work elsewhere. A huge component of any dentistry job is running your private practice. Of the 5,120 individuals currently in the profession, the majority are self-employed and working in combination dental/medical clinics.

You can know everything there is to know about dento-alveolar surgery, but if you don't have a good head for business, you'll never make enough to put food on the table. Don't believe us?

Let's say you want to open a dental office for your OMS practice. If you're like the seventy-one percent of oral surgeons who share their practice with at least one other OMS, you need to find a capable, trustworthy business partner for your venture (source). Next, you need to think about where you'll practice. Build in a low-cost area and you'll save money. But build in an area where there's no demand for OMS, and you'll never recoup your building expenses.

The average independent OMS office has four operation rooms, occupies 2,653 square feet, and averages 1.4 office locations. You can cut costs by building fewer operation rooms, but then you can't see as many patients in an hour. You can try to skimp on office materials, but whether you like it or not, you'll eventually need to invest in cotton swabs, bibs, trays, gloves, and all the other minutiae of an office. 

You'll also need staff: dental assistants, dental hygienists, and receptionists. In general, you're looking at total start-up costs in the neighborhood of $1.2 million-$1.5 million. Not to mention an additional $1 million in annual operating costs. Think hard before you take out that loan.

Suppose you open a private practice with your best friend from your OMS residency program. You build the place, you hire the staff, and you even poach a handful of clients from the only other OMS practice in town. You love your clients, and they love your sense of humor. But it's still a business exchange—service for cash. 

How much are you going to charge your clients? Can you turn a profit? A porcelain veneer costs between $750 to $1300 per tooth, but takes several hours to complete. In contrast, a simple tooth extraction will run your patients between $102 and $206 (source), which means less moolah for you.

Success as an oral surgeon is all in these early foundations. Get it right, and it's a pretty cushy job. You can expect to make on average $220,000 per year, or roughly $105 per hour (source). Around seventy to eighty percent of oral surgeons work full-time, which for oral surgeons means an average 38.6 hours per week. Oral surgeons also need to have some people skills, since 33.7 of those average 38.6 hours are spent directly with patients. Well, less patients, and more patients' mouths.

We'll take our patients alive, thank you very much…X-rays are enough (source).

If you like dentistry (and think oral surgery seems pretty cool), you have other options. Maybe you don't want to take out loans. Maybe the thought of a decade of exams and tests has you running for the nearest cliff. Maybe you like living affordably, clipping coupons, and buying discount toilet paper. If so, more power to you. Maybe surgery just isn't your calling. 

You may have a hard enough time sitting still to watch an episode of television, or maybe you're constantly spilling your cappuccino or dropping the mug altogether. Remember: Oral surgery often means surgery on an area smaller than your fingernail.

That said, there are plenty of other jobs that let you fulfill your love of teeth. Every dentistry and oral surgery office needs plenty of receptionists, dental assistants, and dental hygienists. Those who can't (or don't want to) do surgery can do hygiene instead.

Have the best tooth extraction technique that your dental school mentor has ever seen? That's great...but it doesn't mean anything if you can't balance a checkbook.

• More