# How many dentists are in the U.S.?

There were 205,088 professionally active dentists in the U.S. in 2025, or 60.0 per 100,000 residents, according to the ADA Health Policy Institute. Its state-level series, published by KFF, counts 202,485 for 2024; both are collected in [dental market data](https://ddsintel.com/data).

By DDSIntel Editorial Team. Source: DDSIntel, https://ddsintel.com/data/how-many-dentists-are-in-the-us. Published 2026-10-26; data as of 2026-10-25.

## 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)
- **60** dentists per 100,000 U.S. residents (ADA Health Policy Institute, 2025; https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce)
- **39.4%** of professionally active dentists were female (ADA Health Policy Institute, 2025; https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce)
- **21.2%** of professionally active dentists worked in an ADA-recognized specialty (ADA Health Policy Institute, 2025; https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce)

## How many dentists practice in the U.S.?

The ADA Health Policy Institute counted 205,088 professionally active dentists in 2025, or 60.0 for every 100,000 residents. Its state-level series, published by KFF, sums to 202,485 for 2024. The two differ because they cover different years, so every figure on DDSIntel carries its publisher and period.

Counts for each state are on [dentists by state](https://ddsintel.com/data/dentists-by-state).

## Who makes up the dental workforce?

In 2025, 39.4% of professionally active dentists were female, and 21.2% reported that their practice, research or administration area was an ADA-recognized specialty, according to the ADA Health Policy Institute. The rest are general dentists, who own or work in most of the practices that change hands each year.

How the workforce splits by age is on [dentist age distribution](https://ddsintel.com/data/dentist-age-distribution).

## Why does the size of the workforce matter for transitions?

Every practice transition starts with a dentist leaving or joining, so the size and age of the workforce set the pace. About a third of U.S. dentists were 55 or older in 2025, which is why buyers and advisers watch for [dental transition signals](https://ddsintel.com/signals) rather than waiting for listings.

## Frequently asked questions

### What does professionally active mean?

It is the ADA Health Policy Institute’s count of dentists working in dentistry, including practice, research, teaching and administration.

### How many dentists are there per person?

There were 60.0 dentists per 100,000 U.S. residents in 2025.

### 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 do dentists fall short?

Shortage areas are covered on [dental shortage areas](https://ddsintel.com/data/dental-shortage-areas); ratios per resident are on [dentists per capita by state](https://ddsintel.com/data/dentist-density-by-state).

## 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, via KFF State Health Facts. Professionally Active Dentists, 2024. https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/total-dentists/

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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.