From compensation to practice ownership stats, here's a pulse check on the U.S. dental industry:
1. Alaska is the best state for dentists to live and work in 2022 while Hawaii is the worst, according to career website Zippia.
2. Connecticut ranked No. 1 for place with the best dental health while Arkansas ranked last, according to a study from dental provider Express Dentists.
3.Several Southern states are facing a shortage of dental practitioners, with Florida needing 1,268 practitioners to remove its health professional shortage area designation, the most of any state.
4. The top paying state for general dentists shifted from Rhode Island in 2020 to Delaware in 2021.
5. Several cities in California were among the top paying metropolitan areas for dental assistants and hygienists, with San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward and Santa Maria-Santa Barbara taking the No. 1 spot for each profession respectively.
6. The percentage of dentists who own their practices fell to 73 percent in 2021 from 84.7 percent in 2005, according to the American Dental Association.
7. Manchester, N.H., was the highest paying metropolitan area for general dentists in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
8. The cost of dental education at public and private universities has more than tripled in the last 50 years, according to data from the American Dental Association.
9.Health practitioner offices are the top paying workplaces for general dentists in the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
10. In 2021, 46.2 percent of dentists in the U.S. practiced solo, according to the American Dental Association.