A dentist works to evaluate, diagnose, prevent, and treat diseases that can form in the mouth and teeth. A dentist is an innovator in some areas of dentistry. There are research dentists that work on finding cures for mouth diseases like cancer or tumors. Others work toward to clean the teeth or fill in a cavity that has formed.
The most innovative dentist is going to be a surgical dentist. This type of dentist will perform surgery on the mouth either to reconstruct the jaw and the teeth or to remove teeth. For example a surgeon in dentistry may drill a hole into the jaw bone in order to put a dental implant into the mouth. This enables a person to look as though they have all their teeth. It also circumvents the need for dentures.