DDSHow many dentists practice in the U.S.?
The ADA Health Policy Institute counted 205,088 professionally active dentists in 2025, or 60.0 per 100,000 residents. Its state-level series, published by KFF, shows 202,485 in 2024. Counts differ slightly by year and definition, so every figure on DDSIntel carries its publisher and period, as the retirement statistics page shows.
Where are dentists in short supply?
At the end of 2025 there were 7,443 dental health professional shortage area designations covering 63,700,964 people. Those areas had about a third of the dentists they need, and 10,744 more practitioners would be needed to remove the designations, according to HRSA data tabulated by KFF. The state-by-state values appear on the home page map.
Which figures are DDSIntel’s own?
The figures on these pages are reprinted from public agencies and named publishers, with their dates. DDSIntel’s own measures, such as the monthly Dental Transition Index, are built from public records about dental transition signals and are published only in aggregate, by state and region, once each release is signed off.
The national count is on how many dentists are in the U.S., state counts on dentists by state, the age profile on dentist age distribution shortage designations on dental shortage areas, per-resident ratios on dentists per capita by state and the office count on how many dental offices are in the U.S..
Consolidation figures are contested; how consolidated dentistry is compares the main estimates, and dental practice multiples compares published price ranges. Retirement timing is covered in the practice lifecycle.
In this section
- What percentage of dentists are near retirement age?
- How many dentists are in the U.S.?
- How old are U.S. dentists?
- How many dentists does each state have?
- How many Americans live in a dental shortage area?
- How many dental offices are in the U.S.?
- How many dentists are there per capita in each state?
- What EBITDA multiple do dental practices sell for?
- Is dental M&A slowing down in 2026?
Frequently asked questions
How current are these figures?
Each figure shows its own period, such as 2024 or as of December 31, 2025, and DDSIntel re-reads every figure at its publisher before it is shown.
Can I reuse these numbers?
Yes. Credit the original publisher and DDSIntel, and see the press page for citation formats.
Why do dentist counts differ between sources?
Publishers count different populations and years, for example professionally active dentists versus licensed dentists, and national versus state series.
Where can I report an error?
Use the corrections page. Every change to a published figure is listed there with what changed and why.
Sources
- ADA Health Policy Institute. The dentist workforce. ada.org.
- ADA Health Policy Institute. The U.S. Dentist Workforce, 2025 update. ada.org.
- ADA Health Policy Institute, via KFF State Health Facts. Professionally Active Dentists, 2024. kff.org.
- HRSA, via KFF State Health Facts. Dental Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), as of December 31, 2025. kff.org.
Questions or corrections: request a correction. Markdown version: /data.md.