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Fact sheet: the dental workforce

Public data, cited

Published by the ADA Health Policy Institute and federal agencies, not by DDSIntel. Each line carries its original source; please credit that publisher. Figures were checked against the publisher on Oct 15, 2026.

  • There were 205,088 professionally active dentists in the United States in 2025.

    ADA Health Policy Institute1

  • 18.6% of them were 55 to 64 years old and 15.2% were 65 or older.

    ADA Health Policy Institute1

  • The average age at which dentists retired was 68.7 in 2024.

    ADA Health Policy Institute1

  • 16.1% of dentists were affiliated with a dental support organization in 2024.

    ADA Health Policy Institute2

  • KFF's state tabulation of ADA data counts 202,485 professionally active dentists in 2024.

    ADA Health Policy Institute, via KFF3

  • As of December 31, 2025, there were 7,443 dental health professional shortage area designations, home to 63,700,964 people.

    HRSA, as tabulated by KFF4

  • Those areas had 32.9% of the dental practitioners they need; 10,744 more would remove the designations.

    HRSA, as tabulated by KFF4

Citing DDSIntel

Use the "Cite this" control under any chart for the exact citation. Name the index or report and the month, because values can be revised. Every month and edition keeps its own URL.

Reusing charts

  • You may reproduce any public DDSIntel chart, in print or online, with the credit line "Source: DDSIntel" and the data-as-of date shown under the chart.
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Press list

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Embargoes

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Style notes

Name
DDSIntel, one word, capital D-D-S-I
Describe us as
A dental transition intelligence platform
Boilerplate, use verbatim
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.
Report title
Dental Market Report, with edition

Sources

  1. American Dental Association, Health Policy Institute. The dentist workforce. ada.org.
  2. American Dental Association, Health Policy Institute. The U.S. Dentist Workforce, 2025 update. ada.org.
  3. American Dental Association, Health Policy Institute. Professionally active dentists, 2024, as tabulated by KFF. kff.org.
  4. Health Resources and Services Administration, Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary as of Dec 31, 2025, as tabulated by KFF. kff.org.