An orthopedist is a type of physician who specializes in the treatment of various injuries and deformations of the body that have occurred as the result of trauma, and they may choose to practice their profession either by relying on surgical intervention primarily, or opting for alternative courses of treatment when they can be applied. An orthopedist would typically evaluate the situation with the patient’s injury and recommend an appropriate course of treatment, in some cases forwarding the patient to an additional orthopedist who specializes in the particular type of procedure needed to get rid of the problem.
Becoming an orthopedist is mostly similar to other positions in the medical field, starting with a Bachelor’s degree and followed by specializing in medicine and more specifically orthopedy in medical school. Additionally, in order to maximize one’s chances of success as an orthopedist, it can pay off to specialize further in surgical operations, as those can be quite heavily demanded in some cases and can serve for a good source of work.
Orthopedists earn very well, as do most people in the medical field – with an average annual salary of between $110,000 – $230,000, the job also has some flexible working hours and good overall working conditions for those who practice it. One of the downsides is the difficulty in securing a client stream, as the patients for an orthopedist can be somewhat infrequent depending on one’s location, though in most cases this shouldn’t be a problem.