# What percentage of dentists are near retirement age?

About a third of U.S. dentists were 55 or older in 2025: 18.6% were 55 to 64 and 15.2% were 65 or older, according to the [ADA Health Policy Institute](https://ddsintel.com/data). The average dentist retired at 68.7 in 2024, after a career of 41.3 years.

By DDSIntel Editorial. Source: DDSIntel, https://ddsintel.com/data/dentist-retirement-statistics. Published 2026-10-26; data as of 2026-10-16.

## Key numbers

- **205,088** professionally active U.S. dentists (ADA Health Policy Institute, 2025; https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce)
- **18.6%** were 55 to 64 (ADA Health Policy Institute, 2025; https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce)
- **15.2%** were 65 or older (ADA Health Policy Institute, 2025; https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce)
- **68.7** average retirement age (ADA Health Policy Institute, 2024; https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce)
- **41.3** years, the average career length (ADA Health Policy Institute, 2024; https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce)

## How many dentists are 55 or older?

Of 205,088 professionally active U.S. dentists in 2025, 18.6% were 55 to 64 and 15.2% were 65 or older, according to the ADA Health Policy Institute. Together that is 33.8%, roughly 69,000 dentists. This group is what DDSIntel calls the dental retirement cohort when it is counted in a defined geography.

## At what age do dentists retire?

The average U.S. dentist retired at 68.7 in 2024, up from 64.7 in 2001, according to the ADA Health Policy Institute. Average career length rose over the same period, from 37.8 years to 41.3 years. Later retirements compress exits into a tighter window, which is why [transition signals](https://ddsintel.com/signals) focus on timing.

The trend and what it means for owners is covered in [when do dentists retire?](https://ddsintel.com/lifecycle/when-do-dentists-retire).

## Why do retirement statistics matter to buyers and advisers?

Brokers, DSOs, lenders and the firms that serve practices all plan around the same event: an owner deciding to sell, retire or merge. National age figures show the size of the wave; they do not show which practices will move or when. That gap is what county-level signal data, published in aggregate, is meant to close.

Consolidation changes who the buyers are; see [how consolidated dentistry is](https://ddsintel.com/dso) and, for published price ranges, [dental practice multiples](https://ddsintel.com/data/practice-valuation-multiples).

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the average age of a dentist at retirement?

68.7 years in 2024, according to the ADA Health Policy Institute, up from 64.7 in 2001.

### How long is a typical dentist’s career?

The average career span was 41.3 years in 2024, up from 37.8 years in 2001 (ADA Health Policy Institute).

### How many dentists are there per person?

There were 60.0 dentists per 100,000 U.S. residents in 2025, according to the ADA Health Policy Institute.

### Does DDSIntel publish retirement figures for individual dentists?

No. Public pages show aggregate counts only; no public page names a practice, a dentist or a license number.

## Sources

1. ADA Health Policy Institute. The dentist workforce. https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce
2. ADA Health Policy Institute. The U.S. Dentist Workforce, 2025 update. https://www.ada.org/-/media/project/ada-organization/ada/ada-org/files/resources/research/hpi/US_dentist_workforce_2025.pdf

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DDSIntel is a dental transition intelligence platform that detects pre-market dental practice transition signals for brokers, DSOs, lenders and the firms that serve them.