From dental practitioner salaries to the percentage of dentists who own practices, here are 10 notable statistics about the dental industry Becker's reported on this year:
Editor's note: Data was taken from the American Dental Association, Kaiser Family Foundation, Health Resources and Services Administration, Express Dentists, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Education Data Initiative.
1. The number of dental school graduates has increased by 30.5 percent since 2011.
2. There are 159,246 active general dentists in the U.S.
3. The University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., has the most expensive dental school in the U.S., with tuition at $119,360 per year.
4. The average dental school graduate in 2019 owed $292,169 in student loan debt.
5. California is the state with the highest number of active dentists and the most dental shortage areas.
6. The U.S. is in need of 11,742 dental practitioners to relieve shortage areas.
7. Connecticut ranks as the top state for dental health in the U.S., while Denmark was listed as the top country for dental health in the world.
8. Mean annual salary for six dental professions:
- Dentist: $177,770
- Dental hygienist: $81,360
- Dental assistant: $42,510
- Oral surgeon: $311,460
- Prosthodontist: $143,730
9. Dentists, all other specialists: $179,400
10. Health practitioner offices are the top paying workplaces for general dentists in the U.S., earning them an average $213,930 per year.
11. The percentage of dentists who own their practices fell to 73 percent in 2021 from 84.7 percent in 2005.